PETA plans to stage protest against this year’s biggest horror movie-Robert Oliver-Entertainment – Metro

Nosferatu stars Nicholas Hoult and is out in the next few weeks (Picture: Focus Features/Aidan Monaghan)

PETA has announced that it plans to stage a boycott protest at a screening of 2024’s most anticipated horror film.

The animal rights organisation, which was formed 44 years ago, reportedly plans to send a ‘giant rat’ to a screening of Nosferatu.

Made by American filmmaker Robert Eggers, Nosferatu is a modern remake of the classic 1922 film, which itself was an adaptation of Bram Stoker’s 1897 novel Dracula.

On Sunday, the Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills, California will play host to a star-studded event as Nosferatu, starring Nicholas Hoult, makes its Academy premiere.

And PETA are keen to disrupt the big premiere, vowing to ‘set the record straight’ regarding how rats are used in the upcoming horror flick.

Their problem appears to be with how rats are portrayed as a species in the film, apparently signifying death and disease in 19th century Germany.

Animal rights organisation PETA are no strangers to protest (Picture: PA)

PETA’s director of animals in film and television, Lauren Thomasson, gave an impassioned statement to the media ahead of the film’s release.

‘A human is no more likely to be harmed or killed by a rat in real life than by a vampire,’ Lauren said. 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.’

She continued: ‘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.’

PETA’s giant prosthetic rat will reportedly carry a sign on behalf of the species, which is expected to read: ‘Rats have rights! We didn’t cause the plague!’

The Black Death killed an estimated 50 million in the 14th century (Picture: Hulton/Getty Images)

Director Robert Eggers used rats in some sequences of Nosferatu (Picture: Focus Fetures / Aidan Monaghan)

The message refers to the widely held belief that rats were partly responsible for the mass spread of the black plague throughout Europe during the 14th century.

Named the Black Death, the bubonic plague killed an estimated 50 million people in Europe and northern Africa between 1346 and 1353.

Fleas carried by rats are thought to have spread the disease, but a study published in 2018 argued that human fleas and lice spread the disease instead.

Other studies have also argued that the virus spread ‘too fast’ among humans to only be attributed to rats and fleas, with doubt now cast over the popular theory.

However, Robert, who directed 2019’s The Lighthouse and 2022’s The Northman, defended the use of so many rodents in the film, saying they were ‘well-trained’.

He said: ‘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.’

Despite them being well-trained to act, rats aren’t so well-trained in other departments. Robert told fellow movie direction Guillermo Del Toro, ‘I didn’t know that rats are incontinent, so the smell is insane.’

Nosferatu has already been a hit with critics who’ve seen it, with the film already sitting pretty at 95% on Rotten Tomatoes with an average rating of 8.3 out of 10.

Nosferatu hits UK cinemas on January 1, 2025.

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