Robert Eggers , the director of the 2024 remake of the classic silent film “ Nosferatu ,” confirmed that he knows about the Transylvanian vampire Count Orlok’s connection to Bikini Bottom on Thursday. Eggers — in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter at his film’s Los Angeles premiere — was asked about “ SpongeBob SquarePants ” introducing younger generations to the vampire, who was notably seen flickering the lights at the end of the season two episode “Graveyard Shift.” Eggers tied how kids know about “Nosferatu” through the hit Nickelodeon show to how he learned about cultural references watching Jim Henson’s “Muppet Babies” when he grew up.
′′[The show] would play little clips of Lon Chaney’s ‘ Phantom of the Opera ’ and early versions of ‘ Cyrano de Bergerac ’ and stuff,” Eggers noted. “And that actually, that weird cartoon gave me exposure to a lot of movies that I watched when I was a little older with memories from ‘Muppet Babies.’ So thanks, SpongeBob.
” Director Robert Eggers thanks SpongeBob for introducing younger people to #Nosferatu pic.twitter.com/HQgmQ4WEMR Count Orlok, who goes by the name Nosferatu in the show, has gone on to become a recurring character in “SpongeBob SquarePants” just as a younger version of the vampire named Kidferatu has called the spinoff show “Kamp Koral: SpongeBob’s Under Years” home.
The character wasn’t originally planned to make his Bikini Bottom debut in “Graveya.