Summary
- The Northman is a Viking epic by Eggers, different from his usual style but still crafted authentically with Norse mythology.
- Nosferatu, a remake by Eggers, showcases stunning Gothic visuals and top-tier performances, yet falters in storytelling and pacing.
- The Witch, Eggers’ folk horror debut, offers a slow-burn elevated horror experience with unsettling atmosphere and exceptional performances.
Robert Eggers is a prolific writer and director who has crafted some of the most gorgeous, surreal, and captivating arthouse films together with his cinematographer Jarin Blaschke. Eggers’s movies often evoke deep, complex horror elements tied to folklore and mythology and feature memorable and disturbing shots that resonate with the audience in ways no other filmmaker can achieve.
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After his debut indie horror in 2015, The Witch, Robert Eggers’s career as a filmmaker has only grown bolder with every new project, even remaking the 1922 classic, Nosferatu. With Eggers, you can always count on performances and visuals that shatter expectations, so here are his masterpieces, ranked.
4
The Northman
“I Will Avenge You, Father! I Will Save You, Mother! I Will Kill You, Fjölnir!”
|
Main Cast |
Released |
Rotten Tomatoes Score |
IMDb Rating |
Where To Stream |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Alexander Skarsgård, Nicole Kidman, Claes Bang, Anya Taylor-Joy, Ethan Hawke, Willem Dafoe, Björk, Gustav Lindh, Elliott Rose, Phill Martin, Eldar Skar, Olwen Fouéré, Edgar Abram, and Oscar Novak |
2022 |
90% |
7 |
Peacock |
For his third film, Robert Eggers chose to take a different route from his standard unsettling folk horror atmospheres. The Northman adapts the 13th-century Scandinavian legend of Amleth, which went on to inspire Shakespeare’s Hamlet and Disney’s The Lion King reimagining. However, it’s all still crafted in the signature slow-burn arthouse style of Eggers, so this Viking epic is nothing like The Last Kingdom or Vikings TV shows.
Alexander Skarsgård plays skilled Viking warrior Amleth, who’s been seeking vengeance all his life on his uncle for killing his father to usurp the throne and then later marrying his mother. It’s a brutal and harrowing tale, but one that plays out very slowly and is layered with many interesting visuals and references to Norse mythology. This might not keep you as engaged as other films bearing this kind of revenge storyline, though.
Amleth keeps his identity hidden and infiltrates his uncle Fjölnir’s estate as a slave. Before he enacts his revenge on his uncle, he maneuvers in a gruesome and twisted manner to torment Fjölnir and kill all those around him. He also falls in love with a Slavic sorceress named Olga, played by Anya Taylor-Joy, and sees that she will bear his children. The story turns into a struggle with destiny for Amleth, which eventually leads to a set-piece duel at a volcano between him and his uncle.
While it might seem the least exciting of his films, Eggers once again achieves excellent visuals, cinematography, and use of lighting and colors, and highlights Norse mythology and culture in a way mainstream movies haven’t done so before. The character design of the Valkyries, as well as including nods to Valhalla, Odin, a Seeress, Yggdrasil, and traditional Viking customs, make The Northman a highly underrated film.
3
Nosferatu
“Does Evil Come From Within Us, Or From Beyond?”
|
Main Cast |
Released |
Rotten Tomatoes Score |
IMDb Rating |
Where To Stream |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Lily-Rose Depp, Bill Skarsgård, Nicholas Hoult, Willem Dafoe, Emma Corrin, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Ralph Ineson, and Simon McBurney |
2024 |
87% |
7.8 |
Peacock (After its theatrical run) |
Out of all of Robert Eggers’ previous works, Nosferatu generated the most hype and was probably the filmmaker’s most highly anticipated release. It’s a remake of an unofficial Dracula adaptation from 1922 with heavy influences from Francis Ford Coppola’s 1992 Dracula woven into it, but you can also clearly see where Eggers’ production design, cinematic vision, and folk horror roots come through.
Bill Skarsgård delivers an unbelievable performance in his transformation as Count Orlok, making the titular vampire one of the most menacing, formidable, and genuinely scary horror villains in recent memory (even more so than Pennywise). The voice, makeup, character design, and costuming are perfect, and his power over the other characters, especially Lily-Rose Depp’s character, is dark, unsettling, and enchanting to witness.
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The Gothic visuals are nothing short of amazing, with some scenes feeling like paintings, as typical of Robert Eggers’ style. The lighting and cinematography are impeccable, easily the best of 2024, and the ending scene has one of the most grotesque and stunning shots in modern horror cinema that will stick with you. Where Nosferatu falls a little short is in its storytelling and pacing.
Certain scenes could sometimes feel out of place, like they were cut together randomly with some context missing from them, and the story overall felt like a rushed version of the original tale that needed to be better fleshed out. Some parts also felt unnecessary to include, and Willem Dafoe’s character, though brilliant, sadly felt unimportant, given the ending. However, the caliber of performances by all the actors will guarantee major award recognition.
2
The Witch
“Wouldst Thou Like To Live Deliciously?”
|
Main Cast |
Released |
Rotten Tomatoes Score |
IMDb Rating |
Where To Stream |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Anya Taylor-Joy, Ralph Ineson, Kate Dickie, Harvey Scrimshaw, Ellie Grainger, Lucas Dawson, Daniel Malik, Bathsheba Garnett, Sarah Stephens, and Julian Richings |
2015 |
91% |
7 |
VOD |
The Witch was Robert Eggers’ first foray into folk horror and period drama, and it’s a movie that will instantly solidify you as a fan of his. This film is a perfect example of what’s referred to as ‘elevated horror.’ It’s a horror film that resembles the classic A24 indie arthouse trend, and it helped grow and popularize the studio in its early years. You really need more horror done like it today.
What made it special is that it’s unlike any other story centered on a wicked witch in the woods or the witchcraft trials period. It’s disturbing and unsettling in an original and slow-burn way, building an excellent atmosphere through its sound design and isolated forest setting. The things happening to children here are distressing and tough to watch at times, which is part of the horror nuance; the child actors are also as phenomenal as the adults, which is a challenging bar to achieve.
Underrated actor Ralph Ineson truly impresses as the father, Prometheus’ Kate Dickie leaves behind the Alien universe to play a grief-stricken Puritan mother in 1600s New England, and Anya Taylor-Joy gives a memorable and career breakthrough performance as their oldest daughter, Thomasin, who bears the brunt of the tragic events that unfold.
The undoing of this family due to the devil being in their midst is sinister and twisted in all the right ways. The witches are a more enigmatic presence, and the family’s black goat, Black Phillip, comes with such an unexpected twist that really puts a spin on what you think the devil might be. The film concludes on the most dark and unforgettable note, with an eerie ending ritual that will confound and haunt you to this day.
1
The Lighthouse
“Bad Luck To Kill A Seabird!”
|
Main Cast |
Released |
Rotten Tomatoes Score |
IMDb Rating |
Where To Stream |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Robert Pattinson, Willem Dafoe, Valeriia Karaman, and Logan Hawkes |
2019 |
90% |
7.4 |
HBO Max |
The Lighthouse is an unrivaled masterpiece by Robert Eggers. The writer and director’s sophomoric effort surpasses The Witch from a technical, story, and artistic perspective, and the film has still eclipsed everything he’s made since. There’s a psychological aspect, an emphasis on art history and Greek mythology (particularly sirens and the figures Proteus and Prometheus), rich symbolism drawn from folklore, and a purely foreboding and atmospheric descent into madness between two lighthouse keepers.
This is all propelled by the powerhouse performances of the two sole main characters, Thomas Wake and Ephraim Winslow, played by Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattinson, respectively. A mystery unfolds between the two strangers the longer they stay isolated at the lighthouse, and when a massive storm crashes down, the duo becomes increasingly unhinged and paranoid, where strange hallucinations and phenomena take over.
The rapid-fire sailor-like banter and dialogue between Dafoe and Pattinson is sharp, expertly written, and highly entertaining, generating tension, humor, and shock. The lighthouse itself becomes this villainous presence, representing untold knowledge that can be dangerous to wield. Then, there’s even a moment that directly recreates Hypnosis by Sascha Schneider, and the entire film is stylistically framed in black-and-white with a 1.19:1 aspect ratio.
The Lighthouse was nominated for an Oscar for its stunning cinematography, as this scale of atmosphere and environmental storytelling is hard to capture so effectively in a movie. The ending shot, once again, is graphic and harrowing and will be seared into your mind. And really, this is one of those rare films that speaks to what filmmaking and cinema are all about and should be studied.
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