Gravel Driveway Repair in Lee, NH

Robert Eggers got his first inspiration for the current hit movie "Nosferatu" as a child attending Mast Way Elementary School in Lee, New Hampshire.

The school is where Eggers, now 41, first saw an image of Max Schrek as Count Orlok from F.W. Murnau's 1922 silent film "Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror" on a book cover. This sparked his love of the horror genre.

"I thought it was like the coolest thing ever. With the help of my mom, and this is before the time of Amazon and YouTube, we went to the Fox Run Mall, which had the closest video store to Lee, and we had to order a VHS, which came in the mail about a month later," Eggers said. "And that VHS was really inspiring."

Eggers, writer and director of "Nosferatu," the film starring Bill Skarsgard and Lily-Rose Depp has been 10 years in the making. There were three previous attempts to film and produce it before they pulled it off, he said.

Filming began in 2015 but was called off for a number of reasons, Eggers said. He had just finished post-production of "The Northman," and needed a break. He said he's glad "Nosferatu" came out when it did, released on Christmas Day in U.S. theaters last month, as he's evolved over the years as a filmmaker and person.

"(It's) become a collective vision" over the years, he said, and "we've done a better job of articulating what's in our imagination and getting in onto the screen."

Eggers attributes success to Seacoast

Eggers attributes much of his success as a filmmaker to mentors dung his time growing up in New Hampshire's Seacoast region. Eggers attended Oyster River schools in Durham, naturally stepping into acting as his mom, Kelly, a dancer and actress, started the Oyster River Players theater company.

During his senior year of high school, Eggers co-directed a play version of "Nosferatu" with his friend, Ashley Kelley Tata, who is now a theater and opera director in New York. He had done some acting at the old Edwin Booth Theater in Dover and had invited founder Edward Langlois to the high school production. After Langlois had seen the play, he invited them to create a more professional version of "Nosferatu" at the Edwin Booth Theater.

"(It) was very thrilling, and it cemented the fact that I wanted to be a director, and also made 'Nosferatu' permanently, like a big part of who I am. New Hampshire roots are large for me, for sure," said Eggers.

Eggers also credits inspiration he received from the late Hyman Bloom, a painter from Nashua. He said as of this week he had put one of Bloom's drawings in his "look book" for a future film project. He did not specify what the film is, but Eggers said he would like to expand beyond the horror genre. He noted "The Northman" was not a horror movie, but to tell complex, personal stories, he has often used the horror genre.

"Nosferatu" in 2024 compared to 1922

Eggers' version of "Nosferatu" is similar to the overall plot of the original 1922 Nosferatu, but with some minor tweaks, he said. Set in the 1830s, the plot follows newlywed couple Ellen and Thomas Hutter, Thomas, played by Nicholas Hoult, and Ellen played by Depp, as Thomas journeys to the Carpathian Mountains of Transylvania by request of his employer to sell a new client real estate. The new client is ominous Count Orlok, played by Skarsgård, who traps Thomas in his castle and proceeds to suck his blood.

A tweak from the original while preserving the history of the film but making it more visually appealing with modern cinematography is the journey of the ship bringing the plague to Wisburg, Germany, where the film is set. The original screenplay by Henrik Galeen, depicts a "dead schooner" slowly and creepily coming into Wisburg, said Eggers. "But when I read Henrik Galeen's screenplay, he envisioned a very chaotic storm that would bring the ship into town in a more, climactic, operatic way. Because of modern technologies and budgets, we were able to do that. It was cool to actualize the screenwriter's original intent."

An obvious change is Eggers' "Nosferatu" has dialogue, while F.W. Murnau's original version was a silent film. Count Orlok is disguised to be a Transylvanian nobleman, and instead of speaking Hungarian, he speaks Dacian, "a very ancient language of the region," said Eggers. The Dacians were ancestors of the ethnic Romanians, said Eggers, and since Orlok is casting spells and "studying ancient magic," it was only fitting that he spoke an ancient language, Eggers said.

Referring to how the movie ends, Eggers said, "I think that's for each and every audience member to decide for themselves. But was it a sacrifice? You know, yes, but is there also some fulfillment there? As dark and twisted as it may be, like yes. Is it also revenge? I think there's intended to be a lot going on. So, whatever speaks to you works for me."

Eggers previously wrote and directed "The Lighthouse" with his brother Max, which was nominated for an Oscar in for the Best Achievement in Cinematography in the 92nd Academy Awards 2020. Released in 2015, Eggers also directed and wrote the horror film "The Witch: A New-England Folktale." Oscar nominations this year will be announced Jan. 23.

Previous reporting by Jane Murphy was used in this report.

Lee Public Library

Lee, New Hampshire

Population 4,481

Staff at the Lee Public Library located in Lee, New Hampshire (pop. 4,481) have long sought to rework some of their building’s less accessible spaces. In 2022, they were in the midst of a large renovation project designed to make their bathroom and craft area ADA-compliant. But the money they had for this project “wasn’t enough to do all the things we wanted to do,” recalls Hayley Van-Gils, the library’s director.

Lacking funds to fully realize all their plans (which included the installation of a wheelchair accessible sink, a children’s sink, and handlebars around the bathroom’s toilet), Van-Gils decided to apply for a Libraries Transforming Communities (LTC): Accessible Small and Rural Communities grant. Knowing how hard it can be to find money for accessibility upgrades, they were thrilled when they learned their library’s application had been approved.

“It was important to all of us,” Van-Gils says, “that accessibility would be as easy [to achieve] as possible.”

But this was just the beginning of the process. After learning that they had received LTC funding, Van-Gils sought community input (a requirement of the grant) on how exactly to use these funds. Though they had their own ideas, staff also knew that they typically learned about the kinds of accommodations their patrons required only after they attended a library program. “It’s hard to know what people’s expectations are,” Van-Gils explains, adding that for most library programs, people “just turn up, and we do our best.”

In order to “be more inclusive,” Van-Gils knew that they’d need “more knowledge about people before they come in.” To learn about the community’s accessibility priorities, the library hosted a community conversation. Attendees consisted of a mix of professionals who routinely engage with people with disabilities (including an occupational therapist and a special education teacher) and others who regularly participate in library programs. After discussion, the group agreed to prioritize children’s needs.

These modifications were in line with the grant’s intent, which is to improve the accessibility of library facilities, services, and programs for people with disabilities. As such, the work began immediately. In addition to using LTC funds to make upgrades to their bathroom, the library installed a children’s sink in the library’s craft area and updated both this area and their story corner.

The library’s goal was to “include all children in all activities and have it so that they could easily clean up and join in.” And now, the children’s room is “the nicest room in the library.” The renovation has allowed them to think about programming in the craft area, which they never had before. “We’re able to offer so much more in this room,” Van-Gils says, adding that more patrons are participating in programming that takes place in this space — and staying in the area even when activities aren’t happening there. As this suggests, getting an LTC grant allowed Lee Library to build a multi-generational space that works for children and caregivers alike.

“To do something like this, where even something as simple as handwashing is easy for everybody, that was a big deal.”

Completing this project has given Van-Gils and Judy Belanger, the youth services librarian, a broader perspective on accessibility for children. Previously seeing this as “just this one thing,” they now realize that accessibility “encompasses so much more” — that it’s ultimately about inclusivity (a point made repeatedly during their community conversation).

Moving forward, library staff are interested in pursuing additional accessibility projects that benefit the widest swath of people. After securing a second LTC grant, the library now plans to update its front entrance, and is engaging wheelchair users and others with mobility disabilities to choose the right automatic door. They’ve also applied for funding to build an ADA-compliant ramp into the library walkway and have forged a new partnership with a University of New Hampshire program called Northeast Passage, which provides health services to people with disabilities.

Thanks to LTC funding, opportunities for further accessibility upgrades at Lee Library are now abundant. “This grant has made things more usable for the general population,” says Van-Gils. Agreeing with this assessment, Belanger adds that “everybody has benefited.”

Written by Knology. Knology is a nonprofit research organization that produces practical social science for a better world. The organization pursues this goal to help professionals in a variety of sectors build inclusive, informed, and cooperative societies that can thrive together with the natural systems on which we all depend. As a transdisciplinary collective of over 30 social scientists, writers, and educators, the organization's work process is built on equity, transparency, and deliberation.