All 5 Robert Eggers Movies Ranked from the Worst to the Best
Robert Eggers has been one of the directors that Hollywood has been quite excited about because of the overall quality of the films that he has produced and because of his ability to visualize every scene and make it a point for each frame to contribute to the outcome of the movie. This is why a movie that’s directed by Robert Eggers is something that every film fan should watch out for.
He hasn’t been in the industry long enough to produce tons of movies, but Robert Eggers has had his fair share of high-quality movies. That said, we are here to look at all five of Robert Eggers’ movies ranked from worst to best so that you’ll have a good idea of the quality of work that goes into every single one of his films.
5. Brothers (2015)
One of the films that truly defined Robert Eggers’ style as a director is Brothers, which is a short film that’s only 11 minutes. This is a film that marked one of the biggest moments in Eggers’ career as a director because of how it was Brothers that truly allowed him to brand his own style in Hollywood movies. The reason why he made this film was so that he could convince investors to finance The Witch, which is his true coming-out party as a director. And thankfully, Brothers was great enough to convince them that he was worth the investment.
The thing about Robert Eggers is that his writing has always been inspired by his fascination with folktales and mythical stories, and you could see that in his different films. Brothers was one of the first movies that showed his fascination for timeless tales because this is a film that is similar to the biblical story of Cain and Abel. The movie follows the relationship between two brothers who don’t necessarily see eye to eye, and the fact that the characters in the film rarely speak shows how Eggers is able to create a film that has a narrative that doesn’t need to rely on words.
4. The Tell-Tale Heart (2008)
In the middle of his 20s and seven years before he made it big with The Witch, Robert Eggers wrote and directed a short film called The Tell-Tale Heart, which is another one of his films inspired by timeless tales and stories written by legendary storytellers. Of course, if you are familiar with the title, you would know that The Tell-Tale Heart is an Edgar Allan Poe story. For those who aren’t familiar with Poe, he is one of the best writers of short stories and poems that are about the macabre.
The film’s synopsis says:
Within the chambers of a desolate house, a solitary servant tends to his invalid master. Tangibly detailed period design and hauntingly lifelike puppetry unearth the dreamworld of Poe.
In that regard, what you can expect from The Tell-Tale Heart is a story that was reimagined by Robert Eggers from the pages of Edgar Allan Poe’s stories and then translated to the screens. It’s a great 21-minute short film that you should watch if you’re interested in how Eggers’ mind ticks. Of course, this film also won an award for best short in the Buried Alive Film Festival, Atlanta 2009.
3. The Lighthouse (2019)
After his success with The Witch, Robert Eggers followed it up with a great movie called The Lighthouse, which stars named actors Robert Pattinson and Willem Dafoe, as the director already had enough investors that were willing to spend on a movie that involved notable names in the industry. And while The Lighthouse doesn’t have the same kind of scary and terrifying themes that The Witch has, it still carries a similar kind of eeriness and mystery that have become trademarks of Robert Eggers in his films.
The Lighthouse follows the story of two lighthouse keepers who are working on a remote and mysterious island in New England during the end of the 1800s. This black-and-white masterpiece is a psychological horror that tends to use great imageries to evoke fear, as this is one of the most original films you could ever see today. It’s a dreadful movie that also uses dark humor to entertain you but never departs from the psychological horror mystery theme that it uses.
2. The Witch (2015)
The Witch is the movie that truly put Robert Eggers on the map as one of the rising directors in Hollywood, and this is also the very same movie where Anya Taylor-Joy (who also stars in The Northman) first appeared as two stars were born in this film. This movie is where Eggers put to effect his amazing use of imagery as a visionary director. And while the movie only had a budget of four million, which is low when compared to other movies, it was able to gross 40 million because of how great of a horror-thriller it is.
This movie takes place in 17th century New England as an entire family is in the middle of a series of horrifying and mysterious events that led to the disappearance of one of their children. They ended up blaming their eldest daughter Thomasin (Taylor-Joy) for the disappearance of their boy and suspected her of practicing witchcraft as suspicion and paranoia began taking over the entire family. This leads to a movie that tests their loyalty to one another as one family’s faith is tested in the middle of a series of mysterious events.
1. The Northman (2022)
The Northman, while still on its way to theaters, is set to become Robert Eggers’ biggest film to date because it has a budget of 90 million and stars notable actors, such as Alexander Skarsgard, Anya Taylor-Joy, Willem Dafoe, and Ethan Hawke. This film is going to be different from the other movies that Eggers worked on because of how it focuses more on realism with hints of the supernatural as we get to see what the director can do in a movie that involves a lot of action, violence, and gore.
Starring Skarsgard as the titular northman, The Northman follows the story of Prince Amleth, who had to flee his father’s kingdom after his uncle murdered the king and took the crown. Decades later, Amleth is now a Viking warrior that has found some success as a raider but is reminded of his vow to avenge his father and take back his kingdom. As straightforward and as vanilla as its plot may be, you are in for a movie that puts on display Robert Eggers’ full abilities when given a huge budget and a host of different resources at his disposal in a movie that is deeper than it looks.
