PETA has announced it will stage a boycott protest at a screening of the most anticipated horror film of 2024.

The animal rights organization, founded 44 years ago, is reportedly planning to send a “giant rat” to a screening of Nosferatu.

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

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

And PETA is keen to disrupt the big premiere, promising to “set the record straight” about the use of rats in the upcoming horror film.

Your problem seems to lie in the way rats are portrayed in the film as a species that apparently symbolizes death and disease in 19th century Germany.

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

“A human is no more likely to be hurt or killed by a rat in real life than they are by a vampire,” Lauren said. Misrepresentations of these animals as harbingers of death deny viewers the chance to see them as the intelligent, social and loving individuals that they are.”

She continued, “The only ‘pests’ moviegoers have to worry about are directors who subject animals to the chaos and confusion of a movie set, and PETA encourages everyone to see through these shameful stereotypes and show rats the respect they deserve.” they deserve.”

PETA’s giant prosthetic rat will reportedly bear a sign in the species’ name that reads, “Rats have rights!” We didn’t cause the plague!’

The message refers to the widespread belief that rats were partly responsible for the mass spread of the black plague across Europe in the 14th century.

The bubonic plague, known as the Black Death, killed an estimated 50 million people in Europe and North Africa between 1346 and 1353.

Rat-borne fleas are believed to have spread the disease, but a study published in 2018 concluded that human fleas and lice spread the disease instead.

Other studies have also argued that the virus spread among humans “too quickly” to be attributed solely to rats and fleas, with doubts now being cast on the popular theory.

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

He said, “When there are rats in the foreground, they’re real, and then they thin out and become CG rats in the background. And they were well trained.”

Although they are well trained to act, rats are not as well trained in other areas. Robert told his co-star Guillermo Del Toro, “I didn’t know rats were incontinent, so the smell is crazy.”

Nosferatu has already been a hit with critics who have seen it, as the film already has a solid 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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