Recently, Nosferatu film director Robert Eggers talked about a scene which he had to remove from the end of Nosferatu because it was too “demented” to remain in the movie.
Bill Skarsgård plays Count Orlok in the vampire horror film, while Willem Dafoe, Lily-Rose Depp, and Nicholas Hoult are in supporting roles.
With $11.5 million in box office receipts on its first day of release, it has already proven to be a success since its Christmas Day release in the United States. On January 1, the movie will be released in the UK.
What did Robert Eggers have to cut from Nosferatu?
Eggers discussed the film’s ending, which deviates significantly from the original, in an interview with Variety about the adaptation currently showing in theatres. The movie closes with Count Orlok and Lily Rose-Depp’s Ellen Hutter locked in an embrace rather than being scorched by the sun.
Eggers chuckled as he tried to explain the scene further, saying, “No, that’s a little too demented.”
Orlok is seen in the movie bleeding from several different places, although Eggers claims that one “demented” thing they did at first was to make him bleed from his anus. But after a while, Eggers claimed, the choice appeared too “comical,” and they were forced to shut it down.
“Well, if you look very closely at that shot, Orlok is still bleeding out of his eyes, ears, and nose,” Eggers said.
He added, “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 put a cork in it.”
Nosferatu is a remake of the 1922 film of the same name, which itself is an unauthorised and unofficial adaptation of Bram Stoker’s legendary 1897 novel Dracula. The film is written and directed by Eggers, who previously made 2015’s The Witch, 2019’s The Lighthouse, and 2022’s The Northman.
Here are some spoilers for Nosferatu
In an interview with Variety, Eggers talked about the movie’s climactic sequence in which Ellen (played by Depp) and Skarsgård (Count Orlok) are imprisoned in an unending embrace.
“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,” the 41-year-old director said. “It’s nice to have our version of the ‘Death and the Maiden’ motif. I think it looks pretty nice.”
Critics have already praised the movie, with Clarisse Loughrey, a five-star reviewer for The Independent, praising it: “The vampire is reincarnated in Robert Eggers’ Nosferatu. He has lost his gleam, his lazy sadness, and his cobweb-flecked silliness. Now, he is coming for you—yes, you—as the voice in the darkness that whispers, the one who accuses your spirit of being abnormal and your impulses twisted”.
“Perversely, that’s the case with Nosferatu. It tells its old dark tale with such respect and conviction that it feels like being wrapped in a warm comfort blanket.” wrote Xan Brooks for The Independent while describing the film.