Robert Eggers’ gothic horror movie Nosferatu adapts a familiar vampire tale but infuses a new level of skin-crawling dread into its narrative, which ends with a singular moment of simultaneous violence and desire. The original Nosferatu is an interpretation of Bram Stoker’s gothic horror novel Dracula, and the similarities between the overarching plots are very obvious for those familiar with the novel. However, director Robert Eggers chose to adapt Nosferatu due to the simplicity of its narrative and the emphasis on a female character as the heroine.

Nosferatu stars Lily-Rose Depp as Ellen Hutter, a newly-married young woman in 1830s Wisborg, Germany. Ellen’s husband Thomas (Nicholas Hoult) is summoned to Transylvania to execute a contract on behalf of the real estate firm he works for, and finds himself in the clutches of the eccentric Count Orlok (Bill Skasgård). Orlok is revealed to be a vampire who torments Thomas by blurring the lines between nightmares and reality, all the while feeding on him before Thomas desperately escapes Orlok’s castle by climbing out the window and falling into a river that carries him away.

As Orlok feeds on Thomas, Ellen begins to relapse into a condition she suffered as a young girl, which involves torturous dreams, sleepwalking, and violent convulsions that are born of both pain and pleasure. Her condition confounds Friedrich and Anna Harding (Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Emma Corrin), the Hutters’ close friends that Ellen is staying with while Thomas is gone. Friedrich and Ellen’s medical doctor, Wilhelm Sievers (Ralph Ineson), eventually become desperate enough to seek the ᴀssistance of Professor Von Franz (Willem Dafoe), a discredited scientist and expert in the occult.

With Von Franz’s help, they begin to unravel the true nature of Ellen’s condition, just as the still-alive Thomas makes it back to Wisborg, with Orlok arriving in the city shortly after. Orlok brings a literal plague of rats and disease with him, terrorizing the city as he pursues Ellen, whose blood is his ultimate desire. The devastation escalates until Thomas, Sievers, and Von Franz resolve to kill Orlok in his coffin while he sleeps, but while they invade his castle, Ellen invites Orlok into her bedroom for one final confrontation that will decide the fate of the city.

Why Count Orlok Wanted To Feed On Ellen

Desire And Lust Drove His Evil Plot

When Orlok first arrives in Wisborg, he confronts Ellen in her home, ultimately revealing that it was she who summoned his evil in the first place. As a young woman, a lonely and mistreated Ellen reached out in prayer to whatever enтιтy would provide her any measure of companionship or comfort. Given that she had some sort of extra-sensory psychic ability, she actually managed to connect with the demon vampire Orlok, who she pledged herself to and began an unholy psychic relationship with.

Her discovery and marriage to Thomas kept her visions of Orlok at bay, but it also violated her pledge to Orlok, which set the events of Nosferatu in motion. Orlok’s connection to Ellen was physically and emotionally significant, although to call it love would be incorrect; rather, his desire and lust for her escalated to another level on the border of need. It spurred him to reach out to Herr Knock, Thomas’ employer, to send the young man to Orlok.

He deceived Thomas into signing an agreement (written in a foreign language, which Orlok brushed off as a formality of his own customs) that he believed to be related to Count Orlok’s real estate venture in Wisborg, when in reality he was formally agreeing to dissolve his own marriage to Ellen. With Thomas’ side of their marital covenant dissolved, Orlok needed Ellen to formally agree to re-pledge herself to him, which is why he traveled to Wisborg himself. Only then could he satisfy his desire for Ellen’s blood, when she had agreed to connect herself to Orlok of her own free will.

How Ellen Killed Count Orlok

She Used Her Own Body To End The Vampire’s Reign Of Terror

Ellen was in her wedding dress when she invited Orlok back to her bedroom for their final encounter, in an act of formal acceptance of Orlok’s proposal to commit herself to him in order to free the city, her loved ones, and perhaps the world at large. She literally utters the words “I do”, marrying herself to Orlok once more as she had years before. They proceed to disrobe to consummate the marriage as is tradition, but in lieu of intercourse, Orlok begins to feed from her chest, satisfying his psychic and carnal need for her blood.

The name “Nosferatu” is believed to be an alteration of the antiquated Romanian word “nesuferitu”, which is loosely translated to “the offensive one”.

However, Ellen essentially used her body as bait to distract and entrap Count Orlok. By allowing him to feed off her, she knew that he would be powerless to do anything else given how strong his desire and lust for her was. Just as he draws away from her with the sun rising, she pulls him back in to feed even more, trapping him until the sun fully rises and kills him once and for all. In this final act, Ellen retakes control of their relationship, becoming Orlok’s death after spending her life as the target of his torment.

What Count Orlok Actually Is

His Origins Are Briefly Explained Through A Translation

Orlok’s true nature is quickly revealed while Thomas recovers in the Transylvanian convent. While lying in bed, one of the eldest sisters at the convent explains what Orlok actually is via a translator. As she tells it, Count Orlok was a black magician or sorcerer during life, and was so evil that, upon his death, the Devil himself saved his soul and returned it to his body so that his corpse could continue to walk even in death.

This origin explains all of his supernatural abilities, which include teleportation, psychic communication, mind and body control, the manipulation of animals, influence over the weather, and ability to manifest disease. It also explains why his body looks so rotten and wretched: he is literally a corpse that has been reanimated by the forces of evil. Orlok is a creature so foul that he is beyond evil, and is a manifestation of Death itself; he is more a force of nature than a singular being.

What Happened To The Hardings

The Hutters’ Dear Friends Suffer Alongside Them

The Hardings are close friends of the Hutters, and it’s implied that Friedrich Harding and Thomas were friends in their youth during school. They are unfortunately drawn into the evil plot of Count Orlok, as they are the loved ones that Orlok threatens unless Ellen commits herself to him when he arrives in Wisborg. Anna winds up bitten by Orlok’s rats after suffering her own spell while sleeping in bed next to Ellen, while Friedrich suffers from a lack of sleep during much of the entire ordeal.

Orlok finally places him in a deep sleep when he invades their home; he attacks and feeds on their two young girls, killing them immediately. Anna runs to the girls’ room and comes face-to-face with Orlok, and she is promptly killed along with the child in her belly. Friedrich unravels in his grief while also contracting the blood plague that’s ravaging Wisborg, and goes to his family’s mausoleum, ultimately dying in his beloved wife’s embrace after removing her from her coffin.

What Happened To Herr Knock

Orlok’s Servant Was Deceived To His Doom

Knock was simply a means to an end for Orlok, no more than a cog in his plot to finally get to Ellen. He was driven insane by Orlok’s influence over him, which first came about via his own personal experimentation with the occult. Von Franz finds the mystic tome in Knock’s office (along with his ritual setup) that leads to his connection with Orlok, in which the professor finds information about the ultimate solution regarding Ellen’s sacrifice.

Before he is killed in Orlok’s coffin, Knock reveals he sold his soul to Orlok to become a prince of France. He was of course deceived, as in reality he became a psychically-captive servant of the evil Count. As Orlok’s servant, he transports the coffin to the decrepit manor that he purchased in Wisborg, and acts as the primary diversion for Thomas, Von Franz, and Sievers as Orlok returns to Ellen one final time.

What The Director Has Said About Nosferatu’s Ending

Eggers Specifically Depicted A Classic Renaissance Art Motif

In an interview with SYFY, Eggers noted that the final scene between Ellen and Orlok was specifically meant to emulate a common motif seen during Renaissance-era art, referred to as ‘Death and the Maiden’. The oft-repeated image sees a young woman entangled with the physical manifestation of Death, typically as a skeleton, although there is no definitive image to point to as an origin.

There is not a specific ‘Death and the Maiden’ painting, or engraving that this is based on…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’s use of that image specifically encapsulates the extreme contrast between the beautiful young woman and the monstrous, corpse-like vampire. That contrast serves as a powerful metaphor for the contrast between life and death itself, which is what lies at the core of Nosferatu: the battle between good and evil, both within oneself and in the universe at large.

The Real Meaning Of Nosferatu’s Ending

Ellen Takes Back Control In Her Final Moments

Count Orlok might be the most famous character from Nosferatu, but the star of Robert Eggers’ interpretation is undoubtedly Lily-Rose Depp’s Ellen Hutter, and for good reason. The movie ultimately centers around her relationship with Orlok, and how it evolves over time. In the movie’s opening scene, Ellen reaches out for a companion years before Thomas Hutter travels to Transylvania, and triggers all the death and suffering unintentionally as a result of Orlok deceiving and taking advantage of her.

Ellen chooses the good in herself over the evil exploited by Count Orlok so many years ago, and in doing so decides the fate of all with her sacrifice.

She is dismissed at every turn, with most people in her life (specifically men) believing that her tainted dreams were the hysterical imaginings of a woman, not to be taken seriously. Friedrich refers to them as her “fairy dreams”, laying bare the sheer lack of regard or respect that women during the Victorian Era had, a condition that unfortunately still occurs in contemporary times. She is also quite literally restrained at one point during her convulsions, which also highlights the Sєxual repression that women have suffered throughout history, but especially during that time period.

However, the movie’s final scene sees Ellen take back control in several ways. She is in control in the movie’s final scene, using her body as a weapon against the vampire and making herself the dominant half of their relationship for the first time, quite literally holding him in place and ending him once and for all. She remedies the guilt she felt for unleashing Orlok on her loved ones, erasing the hold that it had over her conscience in one fell swoop.

Ellen’s final confrontation with Orlok is about choice, and can be applied much more broadly than it is in Nosferatu. Orlok can’t overtake her without her consent, and she chooses to allow him into her bedroom so that she can sacrifice herself. She chooses the good in herself over the evil exploited by Count Orlok so many years ago, and in doing so decides the fate of all with her sacrifice. It reflects a choice people make every day, to succumb to what is easy and perhaps evil, or take the harder path for the sake of the ultimate good.

How The Nosferatu Ending Was Received

The Final Moments Are An Overlooked Piece Of A Celebrated Puzzle

Writer-director Robert Eggers’ 2024 remake of Nosferatu was received well by viewers and critics, as evidenced by its 73% Popcornmeter rating (audience score) and 84% Tomatometer rating (critic score) on Rotten Tomatoes. There may be many vampire movies out there, but it’s safe to say that Nosferatu was a successful reinvigoration of the horror subgenre. Praise was given to many aspects of the film, paritcularly Robert Egger’s skills as director, the dark and gloomy tone, and the performances of the cast.

However, the ending of Nosferatu doesn’t factor too much into the reviews, good or bad. In fact, the story of Nosferatu is only really a talking point in conversations comparing the 2024 movie to previous attempts to bring Bram Stoker’s Dracula to screens, and to the 1922 silent movie Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror. The comparisons have been altogether positive, but (perhaps because the plot closely mirrors the 1922 movie), the ending has been overlooked in reviews – though the silence speaks volumes for it being a perfectly suitable conclusion.

The Nosferatu Ending Compared To Other Adaptations

Robert Eggers’ 2024 Vampire Movie Expands Considerably On Its Source Material

It’s well known that Nosferatu is a remake on the 1922 silent movie Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror, which is itself an (unofficial) adaptation of Bram Stoker’s 1987 gothic horror novel Dracula. While Dracula has been adapted many times, director F.W. Murnau’s Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror is easily among the most iconic, and not just because it was made over a century ago. There are many significant differences between the story of the first Nosferatu movie and Dracula, and the look of Max Shreck as Count Orlok is a defining image of the horror genre.

Given that the plot of Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror differs so much from Dracula (and, by extension, the dozens of other movies that feature the тιтular vampire), the most important comparisons when it comes to the Nosferatu ending are with the 1922 silent film. In terms of the ending of Nosferatu, the narrative follows more-or-less the same story beats as A Symphony of Horror – Ellen gives herself to Count Orlok and keeps him occupied long enough to be vaporized by the sun.

Where there’s a lot of difference is the tone, though the reasons are completely understandable, since Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror was made in the 1920s when both technology and audience expectations were incredibly different. The ending of Nosferatu is much more visually visceral than the movie it’s remaking, and contains many more Sєxual elements, since Nosferatur: A Symphony of Horror doesn’t show the Count and Ellen engaging in intercourse.

Source: SYFY