10 Horror Movie Casting Choices That Shouldn't Have Worked (But Did)

It was hardly a surprise when Klaus Kinski was cast to play Count Dracula in Werner Herzog's 1979 Nosferatu reimagining, Nosferatu the Vampyre.

But Herzog's film offered up a considerably more sympathetic depiction of the vampire than in all prior adaptations of either Nosferatu or Bram Stoker's Dracula, presented here as a lonely, tragically doomed figure.

And this clashed somewhat with the casting of Kinski, who was well-known for being an unstable tyrant on film sets, enough that Herzog even considered murdering him during production of the 1972 film Aguirre, the Wrath of God.

It seemed paradoxical to cast an actor so publicly known for their unsympathetically, rage-filled outbursts in the role of a decidedly sympathetic monster. 

Even accepting that actors are hired to play characters far from their own personalities all the time, persuading the audience to root for Kinski's Dracula just seemed like a long shot.

But Kinski was able to successfully disappear into the role, likely aided by an extensive makeup transformation, ensuring that his signature intensity only enhanced the emotional anguish of his performance.