Dani Di Placido covers film, television, and internet culture.

Robert Eggers' Nosferatu aims to retell the story of a horror icon for a modern audience, but the vampire was first encountered by many Millennials and Gen Z in an unlikely setting -- Spongebob Squarepants.

Eggers even mentioned Spongebob in an interview with the Hollywood Reporter, thanking the animated show for introducing the vampire to younger generations.

Eggers explained that he was also introduced to classic films through unconventional means, such as random references in Muppet Babies.

Classic Looney Tunes cartoons often contain forgotten cultural references that, to a modern observer, seem to have emerged from the cartoon, rather than the pop culture that surrounded it.

In the same way, Nosferatu became known as a Spongebob character to many viewers, and to some, is more associated with the cartoon than the 1922 original film, or the 1979 Werner Herzog remake.

Nosferatu is a hugely influential film, but those who grew up watching Spongebob Squarepants likely first laid eyes on the gaunt, unsettling figure at the end of "Graveyard Shift."

"Graveyard Shift" sees Squidward stuck working a night shift with Spongebob, an annoyingly enthusiastic co-worker at the best of times.

Trying to kill Spongebob's positive vibes, Squidward tells him a spooky story of a murderer known as the "Hash-Slinging Slasher" that ends up scaring them both, especially when the lights of the Krusty Krab mysteriously flicker.

The paranormal phenomena spooking Spongebob and Squidward has a mundane explanation, but the entity flickering the lights turns out to be none other than Nosferatu, who reassures them with a terrifying smile; amusingly, Spongebob and Squidward are relieved to see him.

For the average child watching the show, the unexpectedness and mystery is part of the joke -- you don't know who (or what) Nosferatu is.

Like many classic Spongebob jokes, the scene became a meme, often referenced and recreated online.

Indeed, the show repeated the joke so often that the vampire became a recurring character in the series. In the 1922 original, the vampire is actually named "Count Orlok," but in Spongebob, he is simply referred to as "Nosferatu."

Nosferatu turns up so frequently that he even appears as his younger self, "Kidferatu," in the CGI-animated spin-off Kamp Koral: SpongeBob's Under Years.

Count Orlok was not originally a part of the "Graveyard Shift" script, but he was inserted in the episode as a joke by Spongebob writer Jay Lender.

In an interview with Polygon, Lender revealed that he originally encountered Orlok out of context, in the magazine Famous Monsters of Filmland.

"They would show a still from Nosferatu. And it was always that still of him standing in the doorway," Lender told Polygon.

"So my first experience with Orlok and with that image is as this disjointed non sequitur ... What's interesting is that because of SpongeBob, for 20 years, everyone else's first experience with Orlok came as a weird disjointed non sequitur horror image too."

Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror is a 1922 horror classic that was conceived as a rip-off of Dracula, after the film's producers failed to get the rights to the famous Bram Stoker novel.

After Stoker's estate sued the filmmakers for copyright infringement, all prints of Nosferatu were ordered to be destroyed, but thankfully, efforts were made to preserve the surviving copies.

The movie began to gain recognition in the 1960's, when the copyright on Dracula expired worldwide and Nosferatu could be safely screened.

Today, Nosferatu is viewed as a foundational pillar of the horror genre, with the Count's distinct design offering a template for the repulsive, non-seductive breed of vampire.

The 1979 Salem's Lot miniseries was inspired by the film, while Queen and David Bowie used footage from Nosferatu in the video for "Under Pressure." Dungeons & Dragons even named a species of vampire "Nosferatu."

Interestingly, Nosferatu was the first film to depict a vampire dying in the sunlight (Dracula is only weakened by it), and this trope is viewed as standard today.

Despite being filmed in 1922, Nosferatu still holds up -- it's available on YouTube, and makes for a compellingly creepy watch; the film's age only adds to its eerie, otherworldly atmosphere.

Legendary critic Roger Ebert wrote of Nosferatu, "Here is the story of Dracula before it was buried alive in clichés, jokes, TV skits, cartoons and more than 30 other films. The film is in awe of its material. It seems to really believe in vampires."

Robert Eggers means to bring that sincerity back, having spoken at length about how he based his Nosferatu on the folkloric roots of the vampire legend.

Eggers' Nosferatu is scheduled for release on Christmas Day, and has received rave reviews from critics; no word yet on whether or not Eggers' reimagining will make a cameo in Spongebob.