Warning: contains major spoilers for all of Robert Eggers' movies and discussion of sexual violence.
Debuting nearly a decade ago to a wildfire of critical and commercial success for 2015’sThe Witch,Robert Eggersis frequently touted as a front-runner in the debate overmodern horror’s best director. Known for his stunning visuals and heavy emphasis on creative elements in the vein of folklore, mythology, and symbolism,Eggers' quartet of acclaimed movieshave marked the director as a name to rival the likes of Jordan Peele, Ari Aster, or Mike Flanagan over the span of the last decade.
While Eggers is well known for scenes that prove his credentials as amodern horror master, the director’s willingness to push the boundaries of what is acceptable to show onscreen means that he also has a reputation for producingsome of the genre’s most shocking scenes.From horrifically realistic depictions of graphic subject matter to terrifyingly brutal instances of supernatural phenomena, Eggers' ability to produce a masterful and visually arresting horror movie while shaking his audience to their core highlights his inimitable talent as a filmmaker.
The Lighthouse
Cast
The Lighthouse is a psychological thriller directed by Robert Eggers. Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattinson star as Thomas Wake and Ephraim Winslow, two lighthouse keepers who begin to experience strange and supernatural phenomena after they get stranded on a remote island in the 1890s.
2019’sThe Lighthouseis the type of movie that makes viewers question their own sanity, a state of affairs that is never better exemplified than in the sequence depictingWinslow and Wake’s final showdown for the upper hand at the titular structure.Desperately wrestling the older lighthouse keeper after a bitter argument turns violent, Robert Pattinson’s charge sees Willem Dafoe’s counterpart take on a variety of different appearances.
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Changing in near hallucinogenic fashion to match the scene’s trippy aura, Wake takes on the form of the real Ephraim Winslow and a mermaid before rounding matters off by transforming into a terrifying sea monster complete with barnacles and writhing tentacles. Aided by Dafoe’s maniacal cackles and roars, it’s an unforgettably shocking moment, symbolizing the final shift in the power dynamic between the pair. The iconic sequence’s memorability is even compounded by one ofWillem Dafoe’s best movie deathsfollowing afterward in short order.
The Northman
The Northman is a historical epic released in 2022 that follows Viking Prince Amleth on his quest for vengeance. After witnessing his father’s murder and his mother’s abduction by his uncle, Amleth dedicates his life to rescuing his mother and avenging these betrayals.
Highlighting the savage nature of Viking existence in unflinching clarity,The Northmanfeatures one of the most harrowing and graphic raid sequences ever brought to life onscreen. Following the murder of his father, Alexander Skarsgård’s Amleth grows up to become a berserker warrior in a band of Vikings,participating in the barbarities perpetrated against a Rus villagein the early goings of the2022 epic action movie.
Despite under performing at the box office,The Northmanholds a 90% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
Skarsgård’s charge lays about the village with the ferocity of an enraged silverback gorilla, literally ripping one of his unfortunate opponents' throat out with his teeth. However, he’s positively well-behaved in contrast to the rest of his raiding party. The desolating scene’s most shocking aspect is the manner in which Eggers depicts the horrors historically associated with these encounters. Screaming women are raped while the young and the elderly are mercilessly slaughtered, culminating with the horrifying visual of the Vikings herding a group of such survivors into a barn and setting the structure ablaze.
Nosferatu
Nosferatu is a remake of the 1922 silent film of the same name from director F. W. Murnau. Robert Eggers is crafting his own version of the story for the reboot as writer and director, with Bill Skarsgård stepping into the shoes of Count Orlok. Nosferatu tells the tale of a young woman who falls victim to a vampire utterly infatuated with her.
Based on Bram Stoker’s character, Lucy Westenra, Emma Corrin’s Anna Harding meets a similarly tragic fate as herDracula-based counterpart when Orlok murders the young woman and her children. However, one ofNosferatu’smost shocking scenessees Ellen Hutter’s close friend and confidante come face-to-face with the evil pursuing Lily-Rose Depp’s character in macabre fashion for the first time, culminating in one of Eggers' most disquieting onscreen moments to date.
Herr Knock
Renfield
After Anna kindly offers to share the bed with her to ease her nighttime unrest, Ellen awakes to find her stricken friend splayed across the floor of her bedroom. Hammering the nail into the coffin in horrifying fashion,Corrin’s charge is being chewed on by a host of plague rats brought over by Orlok’s ship,producing an unforgettably macabre sight that has likely haunted more than a few viewers' nightmares.
7Orlok Murders The Harding Children
Nosferatu (2024)
Being chewed on by ravenous rats constitutes a notably shocking scene in and of itself. However, Anna Harding’s introduction to Count Orlok’s evil powers pales in comparison to his murderous retribution after he witnesses Ellen having sex with Thomas throughtheir psychic connection. Placing Aaron Taylor-Johnson’s Friedrich in a deep slumber, Bill Skarsgård’s vengeful charge proceeds to brutally murder his young children in the purported safety of their own bedroom.
Orlok ruthlessly murders the girls, draining their blood before tossing their empty bodies aside like a pair of rag dolls.
While the audience only sees the act via shadows against the bedroom wall, the silhouette proves to be more than enough for one of recent horror’s most appalling moments. Orlok ruthlessly murders the girls,draining their blood before tossing their empty bodies aside like a pair of rag dolls.Highlighting that the Count is perfectly willing to commit heinous acts like murdering children just to send a message, this shocking moment underlines the character’s irredeemably wicked nature in bold strokes.
The Witch
The Witch follows a 1630s family that relocates to a remote New England farm. Strange, unsettling events transpire, causing mounting suspicion and paranoia. This testing environment challenges the family’s faith, loyalty, and love amid isolation and tension as they confront the unknown forces lurking beyond their new home.
Grossing more than $40 million worldwide against a budget of $4 million and earning a 91% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, it’s safe to say that Robert Eggers arrived with a bang when he made his feature film directorial debut with 2015’sfolk horror movieThe Witch. The picture swiftly established the shock factor that the director was capable of levying, with the dying monologue turned in by child actor Harvey Scrimshaw’s Caleb after being cursed by the witch serving as a first-rate example of this status quo.
Violently convulsing and roaring in agony that seems all too real,Scrimshaw turns in a performance that belies his young years, a horrifically mesmerizing bow that invariably leaves audiences with white knuckles and bated breath. Jarringly, Caleb’s passionate proclamation of his love for Christ before quietly dying is almost as disturbing as his screams of pain. Viewers are left unsure whether the young boy was afforded the mercy of a peaceful death, or whether his insidious killer managed to torment him to his very last second, rounding off one of Eggers' most traumatic onscreen set pieces.
5Winslow’s End
The Lighthouse (2019)
One of the more unforgettable movies in modern cinematic history, it stood to reason thatThe Lighthousewould save its most shocking sequence for last. Finally ascending the titular building after dispatching Willem Dafoe’s Wake, Ephraim Winslow is confronted with the mind-bending truth of what lies behind the light at the structure’s summit, howling in agony before brutally tumbling backwards down the stairs.
Despite receiving critical acclaim,The Lighthousereceived just one Oscar nomination, losing out to1917for Best Cinematography at the 92nd Academy Awards.
The nature of what Winslow saw is never actually revealed to the audience, but it’s unlikely to be anything good based on where we next find Robert Pattinson’s charge. Eggers concludes what is contentiously his magnum opus with a shocking finale of jaw-dropping proportions and a brutal end forPattinson in his best movieto date. The camera pans to reveal a broken and dying Winslow lying fully nude against the coastal rocks,barely clinging to life as a flock of seagulls agonizingly peck at his exposed internal organs.
4Amleth’s “Horse”
The Northman (2022)
In terms of shocking cinematic moments, the twisted brand of psychological warfare that Amleth levies against Fjölnir and his estate offers up several notable examples inThe Northman. Numbers like gatecrashing a human sacrifice to leave a corpse dangling from the ceiling or spiking rations with enough hallucinogenic mushrooms to make Fjölnir’s unfortunate guards lose their minds constitute worthy candidates, but Amleth’s first sadistic act of retribution serves as one of Eggers' most visually shocking conceptions.
Robert Eggers feature filmography IMDb ratings
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Nosferatu(2024)
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Ambushing several of Thorir’s friends in the dead of night, the vengeful warrior brutally murders the young nobles, arranging their mutilated bodies ina grotesque caricature of a horse and impaling the bloody remains on a wall for all to see.It’s a truly jarring spectacle, one so gruesome that the camera never fully centers on the men’s dismembered corpses. Highlighting the appalling extent Amleth is willing to go to carry out his revenge, this is undoubtedly one of the director’s most horrifying creations.
3Ellen’s Most Extreme Possession
Lily-Rose Depp turns in a magnificent bow in her first major blockbuster role as Ellen Hutter inNosferatu, producing what is contentiously the singlebest performance in a Robert Eggers moviewith her haunting take on Count Orlok’s prey. While narrowing down a highlight from this award-worthy performance is a task in and of itself, the obvious candidate is the unforgettable scene depicting Ellen in the throes of her most intense supernatural seizure yet, courtesy of the sequence’s sheer jaw-dropping shock factor.
Frequent Eggers collaborator Anya Taylor-Joy was originally linked to the role of Ellen Hutter before the part eventually went to Lily-Rose Depp.
Captures a harrowingly authentic snapshot of possession in her latest demonic episode as Orlok draws closer, Depp produces what can only be described as bestial cinema;ripping at her clothes in unashamedly feral fashion while her eyes roll back in her head.As Ellen spasms uncontrollably from what appears to be both pain and pleasure alternately, Nicholas Hoult’s Thomas Hutter can do nothing but watch in horror as this visual nightmare unfolds before him.
2Sam’s Death
The Witch (2015)
It took Robert Eggers just over seven minutes ofThe Witchto produce one of the most shocking scenes in his entire career. While the unforgettable sequence depicting baby Sam’s sudden abduction by a witch from beneath the very nose of Anya Taylor-Joy’s Thomasin is now virtually synonymous with thiscriminally underrated psychological horror movie, the haunting moments that follow the infant’s ghastly kidnapping are where things get really, traumatically, shocking.
Literally quivering in anticipation as she runs her hands over Sam, the witch’s hands are barely illuminated by the dim light of her lair before her gnarled fingers clutching a knife come into view. However, Eggers is only just beginning with his attempts to give his audience nightmares. The crone’s abhorrent silhouette can be seenmashing something brutally in a wooden churn, before smearing a red substance all over her body.When the audience put two and two together to realize Sam’s fate, it’s enough to send them to therapy.
1Ellen Sacrifices Herself
Rounding offNosferatuwith a bang, Eggers saved his most shocking scene for the end of his most recent movie. The sequence in question sees Ellen Hutter heroically sacrifice her life to put an end to Orlok’s evil, willingly inviting the monster into her bed to feed on her long enough for the sun to rise and destroy him. Flexing all the muscles that got him to the dance while setting a new bar for jarring imagery,Nosferatu’sendingis Eggers at his best and most shocking.
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Lily-Rose Depp’s character in Nosferatu, Ellen Hutter, is an intriguing figure due to her psychic abilities and her mystical bond with Count Orlok.
Whipping the rug out from beneath Bill Skarsgård’s villain in deliciously satisfying fashion just when she appeared to be finally submitting to his will, Ellen’s demise is one of Eggers' most horrifically captivating sequences. Watching the nightmarish form of Orlok draped over Lily-Rose Depp’s charge as he feeds on her is harrowing imagery, but so stunningly shot that the audience find themselves utterly captivated nonetheless.The most shocking scene in Robert Eggers' movies to dateends with the unforgettable visual of the Count’s skeletal remains, lying atop Ellen’s blood-stained body in the most morbid embrace conceivable.
