Robert Eggers: “I Was Always Interested in Dark Stuff”

This article is taken from the Autumn/Winter 2024 issue of AnOther Magazine:

“I love the 1930s Dracula, Frankenstein, The Mummy and The Bride of Frankenstein films from Universal Studios – they are the most iconic monster movies in cinema history. Even if you haven’t seen them, the reason Frankenstein’s Monster has a flat head in every Halloween costume is because of Boris Karloff. Dracula wears a tuxedo because of Bela Lugosi. They are ingrained in the public imagination. Frankenstein is the first one I remember seeing, aged six. It really worked on me the way it was meant to – I was truly terrified by Karloff’s gait and his face. But even as a child I realised that he was the victim too – when he throws the girl into the water I was scared, but I understood that he didn’t mean to do it.

“I was always interested in dark stuff. I preferred Darth Vader to Luke Skywalker and the Wicked Witch of the West to Dorothy, but the witch scared the absolute shit out of me. I had nightmares about her all the time. So what is this attraction-repulsion? Universal films aren’t about the jumpscare, they’re about atmosphere. To probe the dark within us in a real way, to go back to those childhood instincts with a more adult approach, that’s my intention. How do you create the post-expressionist atmosphere of the Universal horror movies in a more grounded, realistic way and make the monsters believable?” 

In the American director Robert Eggers’ debut feature film, The Witch (2015), dark stereotypes are redrawn so radically they may be considered anew: a witch stealing a baby and grinding its bones into paste is gut-wrenchingly real, instantly transcending fairytale and folklore. The Lighthouse (2019), a ferocious duel between Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattinson, renders the physicality of a mermaid equal parts repellent and alluring. Eggers’s aptitude for historical accuracy and production design makes these period films, as well as his 2022 Viking epic, The Northman, true feats of immersive cinema built around blood, guts and raw emotion. Nosferatu, out in January 2025 and with Bill Skarsgård playing Count Orlok, has been a long time coming – Eggers first directed the play at school when he was 17. His process is rigorous, “pushing people” in a bid to express that which hasn’t been expressed before, through the stories we think we know backwards. “My influences are all very clear, and Nosferatu is a remake, after all,” Eggers says, yet he plays with the canon, with expectations and clichés – “hopefully subverting them to do something unexpected”.

Photographic assistant: Ricardo Muñoz Carter

This story features in the Autumn/Winter 2024 issue of AnOther Magazine, which is on sale now. Order here.