Nosferatu director reveals ‘demented’ final moment he cut for being too ‘comical’

The vampire horror from Robert Eggers has been a box office hit over the Christmas period

Nosferatu director Robert Eggers has revealed the “demented” moment he cut from the film because it ended up looking “very comical.”

The vampire horror movie stars Bill Skarsgård as Count Orlok with a supporting cast that includes Willem Dafoe, Lily-Rose Depp and Nicholas Hoult.

After just one day, it has already proved a hit since being released in the US on Christmas Day, opening with $11.5 million in box office sales. The film will be released in the UK on January 1.

*Spoilers for Nosferatu follow*

Speaking to Variety, Eggers discussed the final scene of the film which sees Skarsgård’s Count Orlok and Depp’s character Ellen locked together in an eternal 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,” explained the 41-year-old director. “It’s nice to have our own version of the ‘Death and the Maiden’ motif. I think it looks pretty nice.”

Director Robert Eggers attending the Los Angeles premiere of ‘Nosferatu’ on December 12, 2024 (Jon Kopaloff/Getty Images)

Attempting to describe the scene further, Eggers laughed and said: “No, that’s a little too demented.”

When he was encouraged to explain what he meant, the director continued: “Well, if you look very closely at that shot, Orlok is still bleeding out of his eyes, ears and nose. 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.”

The film has already proved popular with critics, with The Independent film critic Clarisse Loughrey raving about it in a five-star review: “In Robert Eggers’s Nosferatu, the vampire is reincarnated. He has shed his sparkle, his languid melancholy, his cobweb-speckled absurdity. He comes for you now – yes, you – as the murmuring voice in the dark, the one that calls your desires perverse and your soul unnatural.

“This creature feeds on shame, of both the faithful and the faithless. And he is as true to us as he was to FW Murnau, director of 1922’s original Nosferatu, or to Bram Stoker, whose novel Dracula provided the (unofficial, legally ruled as copyright infringement) source material.”

Xan Brooks has described the film as unexpectedly suited to the festive period, writing for The Independent: “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.”