Nosferatu has just been released and it’s already a hit, having grossed over $40 million at the domestic box office alone. The remake of the 1922 classic was one of the most anticipated films of the year, especially because of the tone Robert Eggers, known for movies like The Witch, The Lighthouse, and The Northman, could bring to the story. This came up in a recent interview with Variety, where he talked about the scene between Count Orlok and Ellen Hutter at the end. The moment wasn’t totally different from the original, but while there were some details that fit the director’s style, he also took the chance to admit that something was cut from the scene and it would have made the final shot even more disturbing.
Videos by ComicBook.com
Warning: Spoilers ahead for Nosferatu! When asked about the protagonists’ embrace at the end and whether it turned out to be a good conclusion to the story, Eggers said that this had always been the plan.
“Even as I was struggling to figure out the blocking of Orlok’s demise, that final shot was always going to be the final shot,” Eggers said. “It’s nice to have our own version of the ‘Death and the Maiden’ motif. I think it looks pretty nice.”
However, there was more to the scene than what was shown in the final film, something that Eggers said initially was “too demented,” before elaborating that things were far more bloody for Orlok.
“Well, if you look very closely at that shot, Orlok is still bleeding out of his eyes, ears and nose,” he said. “There are some maggot holes in his back. We also rigged it so that he would be bleeding out of his anus, but it was very comical. When we started rolling, we had to literally put a cork in it.”
[RELATED: Nosferatu Review: Gothic Horror at Its Finest]
Eggers impressed many critics with his interpretation of the classic tale, and the death scene of both characters is a very clear example of this. In the 1922 film, the scene is simpler, with Orlok just dissolving in the daylight, but there is a more sensual and even romantic aspect – in a way – in the 2024 film, something that Eggers previously addressed.
“Lily-Rose looking like a doll and Bill looking like a skull with a mustache, it’s a powerful contrast,” he said.
Although the intention was to provoke a greater fear or something more grotesque with the ending that was cut, the scene in this way ended up propagating even more a sense of desire and sensuality that the whole movie sets out to show. Skarsgård and Depp also commented on this. The actor emphasized that the scene didn’t exactly show love between the characters, but it was perhaps the closest that ever existed.
“I want people to go, ‘Is he going to bite her face off?’ And then it turns into a kiss. [Nosferatu is] a very heightened fairy tale/dark story, but also it’s two people potentially falling in love. (…) If it’s not love, it’s a craving and it’s an appetite and it’s lust and desire to devour,” he said. “[Count Orlok is] seeing the sun for the first time in hundreds of years. So he’s mesmerized by it and fear and all of these different things. And in a way, maybe that is what Orlok wanted all along.”
Depp, on the other hand, emphasized the result this leaves and how it impacts the viewer, in relation to her character’s goal in the scene.
“[The end scene is] heartbreaking and kind of bittersweet in a way because she’s doing a good deed and she’s breaking the curse, but she’s also indulging in a dark desire that she has. We wanted all of those things to be palpable, to feel real,” she revealed.
Nosferatu is in theaters now.
