Robert Eggers builds period horror from exacting research and demanding performances. We rate him most when his actors can be funny, frightened or unreasonable without having to deliver another solemn declaration.
Fi1m perspective
In The Lighthouse (2019), Willem Dafoe turns a quarrel between two keepers into an occasion for grand speechmaking. We laughed at the pleasure he takes in making a small dispute sound momentous. Eggers understands how ridiculous authority can become when there are only two men present and neither can get away. The elaborate period language gives Dafoe something to play, and the bullying stays unpleasant even when it is funny.
His feature debut, The Witch (2015), established his habit of building horror from the language, beliefs and objects of an earlier time. He followed it with the isolation of The Lighthouse, then the larger-scale Viking revenge of The Northman (2022). Through those changes, the research has remained central: these characters must take their own fears seriously before we can. That is a useful starting point for a horror director, though it also helps explain why his films can become so insistently grave.
His regular cinematographer, Jarin Blaschke, shapes the lighting carefully and uses period-appropriate lenses. The candlelight and fog of Nosferatu (2024) show how much Eggers depends on what we can barely see. Bill Skarsgård’s count stays in shadow for a long stretch, and the castle scenes are properly frightening. The talk of covenants and terms makes him less frightening.
Eggers makes Ellen the centre of Nosferatu, and Lily-Rose Depp justifies the choice. Her back arches, her jaw locks, and her voice seems to belong to someone else. She also makes Ellen’s wanting as important as her terror, giving the character something to play beyond helplessness. Yet the formal English and the slow declarations weigh down the second hour, and the familiar story does not need so much explanation.
We would not ask Eggers to abandon the research or make his people sound like us. The better lesson is already in The Lighthouse, where Dafoe and Robert Pattinson keep the confinement compelling despite the repeated quarrels. Start there, provided a long evening with two difficult men sounds tolerable.
Biography
Robert Eggers is an American filmmaker. He was born on 7 July 1983 in New York City. He began his career directing and designing experimental and classical theatre in New York before working as a production designer for film, television and theatre. He directed several short films, including Brothers (2015).
Eggers made his feature debut as writer and director with The Witch (2015). He subsequently wrote and directed The Lighthouse (2019) and Nosferatu (2024), and co-wrote and directed The Northman (2022).
