Nosferatu’s next screening is set to be spookier than the rest, with the animal rights organization PETA planning on disrupting the event with a pro-rat protest.
With Nosferatu opening on December 25, one of the most-hyped scenes in the new movie involves 5,000 live rats descending onto the streets of London, carrying with them the deadly bubonic plague.
Director Robert Eggers confirmed the realism of the scene in a conversation [via Variety] with Guillermo del Toro, saying, “If there’s rats in the foreground, they’re real, and then they thin out and become CG rats in the background. And they were well-trained.”
However, not everyone is happy with the use of rodents in the upcoming horror movie. PETA has released a statement disputing the reputation of the rats in the film, and announced they will be protesting the Sunday, December 8 Academy screening of Eggers’ vampire tale.
Nosferatu faces backlash over depiction of rats
PETA’s director of animals in film and television Lauren Thomasson said in a statement: “A human is no more likely to be harmed or killed by a rat in real life than by a vampire, and false portrayals of these animals as harbingers of death deny viewers the chance to see them as the intelligent, social and affectionate individuals they are.
“The only ‘pests’ moviegoers need to be concerned with are directors who subject animals to the chaos and confusion of a film set, and PETA encourages everyone to see through these shameful stereotypes and give rats the respect they deserve.”
According to the organization, the protest will include the use of a “giant PETA rat”, which will “descend upon the Nosferatu screening at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater” on Sunday.
The rat in question will also have a sign reading, “Rats Have Rights! We Didn’t Cause the Plague!”
Production designer Craig Lathrop previously revealed details about the conditions of the scene, telling Variety: “None of [the rats] were lost. We found all of them. They were all there. We built these plexiglass barriers so that the live rats would be in a controlled area.
Nosferatu stars Nicholas Hoult, Lily-Rose Depp, and Bill Skarsgård
“In the scene on the street, the horses are on one side of the plexiglass barrier, and the rats are on the other, so that the rats wouldn’t run underneath their feet and get squashed, so nobody would get hurt,” he added.
Nosferatu arrives in theaters on December 25 in the US and January 1 in the UK.
For more scares, check out our breakdown of the best horror TV shows ever made. You can also check out our list of the best 25 movies of 2024, and see what we thought with our Nosferatu review.
Source link
