The “primal narrative” that ties Robert Eggers’ films together: “It just sort of happens”
There is nothing more enjoyable than a good old fashioned horror film. We love watching nails being peeled off fingers, toes stepping on sharp objects and gory accidental deaths.
But while we love the traditions that come with the genre, many audiences also love it when these conventions are subverted, something that Robert Eggers does through hyper-traditionalist tales that usually have a modern twist, adapting classic stories like Nosferatu and even Hamlet for the big screen.
From his story of the flatulent and sexually frustrated lighthouse keepers to his chilling story of remote occult horrors, the director has always gravitated towards stories that are rooted in fairy tales and traditional archetypal characters, going back to basics and reviving the kinds of stories that used to captivate us as children and plague our nightmares.
In many ways, he is revitalising a genre of storytelling that became somewhat lost amongst the commotion of modern filmmaking, with many people preferring to focus on epic spectacles and hyper-modern technology that is used to animate flying monsters, superhero’s and beloved Disney characters.
But through films like Nosferatu, The Lighthouse and his upcoming film Werwulf, Eggers reanimates beloved stories that once used to reign the storytelling world, bringing us back to the wonderfully simplistic and ghostly stories of the past.
With plenty on the go, it’s fair to say the director will be carrying on his knack for unexpected twists and turns, always giving a fresh, nuanced edge to classic tales by using traditional imagery as an allegory for today’s issues. From his take on trauma and sexuality in Nosferatu to his look at repression and homosexuality in The Lighthouse, there’s no subject too far-fetched to tackle within the realm of modern-day fairy tales.
But with such a clear style and thematic strand running through his work, it’s easy to wonder how he found this particular voice and what drew him towards this genre. When asked this, he said, “I have a primal narrative that comes out. It’s not something that’s designed, it just sort of happens. Everyone likes to die naked and insane…! I’m interested in folklore, mythology, fairytales, and archetypal stories. I don’t have anything particularly unique or sophisticated to say about it. I’m sure a critic could sum it up better than myself”.
There is something very primitive about his work, with characters often being reduced to their most human functions and battling against the limitations of convention versus their true desires. It could be the sight of Lily Rose-Depp as she thrashes around and screams in front of her husband, possessed by an insatiable desire that clashes and is informed by her early childhood experiences with the infamous vampire. It’s a topic that is very much open to interpretation, with Eggers impressively packing layers of meaning into a story that stems from a very traditional tale.
The same goes for The Lighthouse Keeper, with Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattinson spending the majority of the movie farting and masturbating while being confronted with the consequences of loneliness and the unspoken struggle to process their sexual feelings for one another. All of his characters spend an awful lot of time frothing at the mouth, farting, having sex and rolling around naked, creating an attack of the senses that very much encapsulates this primal undertone he described.
