Nosferatu director Robert Eggers explains how star Bill Skarsgård helped him improve the movie's 100-year-old ending

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EntertainmentMoviesHorror MoviesNosferatuNosferatu director Robert Eggers explains how star Bill Skarsgård helped him improve the movie’s 100-year-old endingWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.

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(Image credit: Focus)

Nosferatu trailer

Despite Robert Eggers’s upcoming horror movie Nosferatu being a remake of the 1922 German expressionist film of the same name, the director says he wanted to completely change that century-old ending. But star Bill Skarsgård persuaded him otherwise.

“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,'” Eggers tellsSFX magazinein the new issue, which features Doctor Who’s Christmas special ‘Joy to the World’ on the cover and hits newsstands on December 3.

The director wanted to go against the whole romantic and over-emotional vampire trait we see in most fangy flicks, including many Dracula adaptations. The Count Orlok star has other ideas. “Bill was like, ‘Yeah, but there needs to be some times where he has some kind of vulnerability,'” adds Eggers.

And it looks like the IT star was right as the director explains that keeping some shred of Orlok’s humanity works in the movie’s favor. “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.”

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The upcoming vampire horror movie remakes the 1992 film Nosferatu centred around a young couples brush with a deadly bloodsucker, which in turn is based on Bram Stoker’s 1897 novel Dracula. From its synopsis, it sounds like The Witch director’s new movie will follow the same premise, as it reads, “Nosferatu is a gothic tale of obsession between a haunted young woman and the terrifying vampire infatuated with her, causing untold horror in its wake.”

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Alongside Skarsgård, the movie stars Nicholas Hoult, Lily-Rose Depp, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Emma Corrin, and Willem Dafoe.

Nosferatu releases on Christmas Day in the US and on New Year’s Day in the UK. Read more inthe latest issue of SFX magazine, which features Doctor Who’s Christmas special ‘Joy to the World’ on the cover and hits newsstands on Tuesday, December 3. Check out the fittingly festive cover below…

The SFX Holiday Special 2024 is on sale from 3 December! This bumper edition comes with #DoctorWho Season 25 art cards and an exclusive double-sided #Terrifier3 poster! Also, see loads of previously unpublished Terrifier 3 set photos!Pre-order coming soon, grab your copy fast! pic.twitter.com/394YJHUJGoNovember 19, 2024

The SFX Holiday Special 2024 is on sale from 3 December! This bumper edition comes with #DoctorWho Season 25 art cards and an exclusive double-sided #Terrifier3 poster! Also, see loads of previously unpublished Terrifier 3 set photos!Pre-order coming soon, grab your copy fast! pic.twitter.com/394YJHUJGoNovember 19, 2024

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Nosferatu ending explained: your biggest questions answeredNosferatu star Lily-Rose Depp shares the deep-cut detail in Bill Skarsgård’s Count Orlok look that makes him so “freaky”

Nosferatu ending explained: your biggest questions answered

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Nosferatu star Lily-Rose Depp shares the deep-cut detail in Bill Skarsgård’s Count Orlok look that makes him so “freaky”

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1

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1Sonic the Hedgehog 3 review: “Keanu Reeves as Shadow is wasted whilst Jim Carrey steals the show”

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3

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4The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim review – “An uninspired expansion of the most iconic screen take on Tolkien”

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5Nightbitch review: “Amy Adams' disappointing dark comedy is all bark and no bite”

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2Doctor Who 2024 Christmas special review: “Ncuti Gatwa is as magnetic as ever in this delightful festive treat”

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