Robert Eggers has had an indelible influence on the film industry due to his unique and dreadful imaginative quality. Eggers’ movies do not simply transport the viewers to a land of lores, monsters, and mythology but haunt them with terrifying yet provocative creatures of imagination.
The Witch [Credit: A24]
In the years since his Sundance debut with Anya Taylor-Joy’s The Witch in 2015, there has been little to stall Eggers’ rise as one of the greatest historical and psychological horror writer-directors of all time. With films like The Northman and The Lighthouse, he solidified his position in the industry, ultimately bringing the classic gothic tale Nosferatu to life.
Robert Eggers almost touched upon a classic
The Lighthouse (2019) [Credit: A24]
With his bottomless well of creativity and overflowing imagination, Robert Eggers occupies a dark and dreary space in film culture. The filmmaker’s strengths lie in crafting haunting tales of horror that will leave the audience transfixed in an uncomfortable and inexplicable grasp of fear rather than have them scream with jumpscares and other cheap tricks.
Eggers’ 2019 film, The Lighthouse, starring Robert Pattinson and Willem Dafoe is a confounding work of art that is just as psychologically disturbing as it is aesthetically enigmatic to watch. Although few and far between, his films have had an irreversible impact on mass consciousness by redefining how one looks at horror through the lens of artistic impulse rather than gratuity.
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As such, the probability of Robert Eggers picking up one of the many classics that line the halls of gothic horror, namely Frankenstein, Nosferatu, Dracula, etc. is just too tempting to let go. Nearly a decade after his debut, Eggers has finally brought Nosferatu to life, but this is not the only classic that he had set his eyes on in the first decade of his career.
Frankenstein missed the Robert Eggers treatment
Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein (2025) [Credit: Netflix]
No horror fanatic’s life is complete without a reading of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and Bram Stoker’s Dracula. These tales of gothic horror have not only opened up the dark recesses of their readers’ minds but also inspired countless retellings and adaptations in the film and television industry.
As one of horror’s greatest students, Robert Eggers was bound to pick up a pen and begin to rework the story of Frankenstein into a movie script. However, Eggers was never destined to finish that story since there remains one other student of horror whose name is a legacy in itself – Guillermo del Toro. Fate made it so that del Toro was the one bringing Frankenstein to life.
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In an interview with Curzon, Robert Eggers spoke at length about his creative process, struggles, and missed opportunities when he dropped a little teaser about his unmade and incomplete vision for Frankenstein.
I’m super super excited for Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein but when my son was born, I had an unconscious urge… I started to do Frankenstein. After two weeks, I was like, there’s no way I can do this. It’s impossible. So I’m glad that Guillermo is making [the movie].
Although he did not provide much explanation as to why he left his Frankenstein script unfinished, Eggers did hint at creative problems: Sometimes you know you’ve got a dud […] It definitely sucked, I’ll tell you that. Now, the goth classic that could have received the Eggers treatment will forever remain lost to time.
Nosferatu is playing in theaters worldwide and Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein is slated to premiere in 2025.
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