NOSFERATU Director Explains How Bill Skarsgård Stopped Him From Changing the Film's Ending

Director Robert Eggers embarked on a dark journey to remake one of the most iconic vampire movies of all time, Nosferatu. While this film will retell the dark gothic tale of Count Orok, he initially planned to change up century-old ending, but Bill Skarsgård persuaded not to.

During an interview with SFX Magazine, Eggers explained: "I sent him a backstory of Orlok that I wrote. So we came to it together to achieve what I was after. Because I’m so tired of the heroic and sad vampires, I was just like, 'He's a demon. He’s so evil.’”

The filmmaker was looking to move away from the whole romantic and over-emotional vampire trait that we’ve been seeing in mainstream Vampire films in recent years, but Skarsgård believed that the character need to be vulnerable.

Eggers went on to say: "Bill was like, 'Yeah, but there needs to be some times where he has some kind of vulnerability.”

When talking about the Orlok's bit of added humanity in the movie, the said: "It's very subtle, and it’s not there often, but it is enough. I think the ending of the movie is much more effective than it would have been without Bill’s acute sensitivity to that – while still delivering on this big, scary, masculine vampire."

Nosferatu tells the dark and twisted tale of obsession between a haunted young woman (Lily-Rose Depp) in 19th-century Germany and the ancient Transylvanian vampire who stalks her, bringing untold horror with him.

When previously talking about the movie, Eggers said: “It’s a scary film. It’s a horror movie. It’s a Gothic horror movie. And I do think that there hasn’t been an old-school Gothic movie that’s actually scary in a while. And I think that the majority of audiences will find this one to be the case.”

The film is described by critics as being gory, creepy, haunting, grotesque, stunning, gorgeous, and captivating, and one critic says that it “goes harder than any other horror film this year.”

The movie also stars Emma Corrin (Deadpool 3), Aaron Taylor-Johnson (Kraven the Hunter), Simon McBurney (The Conjuring 2) and Ralph Ineson (The Witch).

The movie will be released in theaters on December 25, 2024.