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Nosferatu's Robert Eggers & Lily-Rose Depp Reveal All: "It's a Heartbreaking End..."
Egger's reframing of a classic moment adds new layers to F.W. Murnau's original ending.
**SPOILER WARNING!! Spoilers for the end of Nosferatu below!!**
With Robert Eggers' version of Nosferatu now out in the world, SYFY WIRE asked the director to explain the haunting final imagery that might reframe how some viewers may look at Ellen Hutter's (Lily-Rose Depp) sacrifice to rid the world of Count Orlok (Bill Skarsgård).
The ending F. W. Murnau's 1922 vampire classic, Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror, is set up when Ellen reads a tome about the existence of vampires and discovers that if a "pure-hearted woman" distracts the vampire with her beauty and offers her blood of her own free will, then the vampire can be felled. She makes the decision to lure Orlok into her home and let him feed. Orlok is compelled to her bed, where he drains her and is so consumed that he is surprised by the sunrise. Caught in its rays, the Sun destroys him in a puff of smoke. Tragically, Ellen does not survive.
In his version of Nosferatu, Egger's goes for a more poetic ending, with visuals that seem as if they were plucked from the pages of a medieval tome. Ellen's actions towards Orlok remain the same, as she decides, with Professor Albin Eberhart Von Franz's (Willem Dafoe) knowledge, that she will offer herself up in sacrifice to save humanity from the plague set in motion by Orlok's arrival.
She welcomes the monster into her bedroom, where they have a fraught conversation about who is torturing who the most, and then he feeds. Drunk on her blood, he completely misses the arrival of sunrise, so the Sun burns him to death. The last shot slowly pans across Ellen and Orlok dying amongst her purple flowers. They share a final tableaux that is both peaceful in its closure, yet hideous as Orlok's demon carcass is sprawled over her.
How Nosferatu's ending is befitting of Robert Egger's sense of time and place
Eggers told SYFY WIRE that the ending sequence was shot about one third of the way into Nosferatu's production. That final image of their entangled bodies was his interpretation of the Renaissance era "Death and the Maiden" motif that originated with German artist Hans Baldung.
"There is not a specific 'Death and the Maiden' painting, or engraving that this it's based on," Eggers clarified of his closing image. "But it's a motif that's been done so well, so many times in our history that it was fun to try our hand at it."
Eggers said that visual was something he knew would end his film very early on in his development. "Exactly that pose was something that was very considered," he detailed. "[Cinematographer] Jarin Blaschke and I designed all the shots. We worked with a storyboard artist to draw the shots. But that is one that I drew myself, very, very specifically. Lily-Rose Depp has this doll-like face, and Bill's makeup is so severe, it really is such a nice contrast."
Lily-Rose Depp on whether Nosferatu's ending is tragic or empowering
In both versions of Nosferatu, Ellen sacrifices her own life to ensure that Orlok is no more. In Egger's version, there's also the sense that Ellen's choice is the first she has been able to make for herself in some time.
Of the climactic end sequence, Depp told us that she and Skarsgård shot it many times. "We shot it so many times that I felt like it was kind of hypnotizing me in a way," she explained. "After a while, I felt like I was stuck in this room with this demon. Not to where I was genuinely scared, but I started to feel like I'm in this crazy tornado moment with this demonic, horrifying being."
Asked if she found Ellen's fate tragic or ultimately empowering, Depp offered an enthusiastic answer of: "Both."
"What's so beautiful about the place that my character ends up is that it's tragic, and it is empowering," she explained. "There's so much power in the choice that she makes, and yet it's a heartbreaking end. But I think she is plagued with the feeling that she brings so much darkness everywhere that she goes, that [being] able to do a good deed and feel that she's bringing light, actually, to the world is a beautiful thing."
Nosferatu is now exclusively in theaters. Get tickets at Fandango.
