After directing modern cinema classics like The Witch, The Lighthouse, and The Northman, director Robert Eggers delivered another horror masterpiece with his remake of the 1922 silent vampire film Nosferatu. With the latter receiving incredible reviews, Eggers continues to present himself as one of the most distinctive film directors in modern Hollywood. Ironically, he has done so by presenting riveting, authentic stories set in the distant past that invoke folklore and mythology.
Long before he started working as a Hollywood filmmaker, Eggers accomplished an amazing feat and directed his high school’s stage production of Nosferatu. Even at this young age, Eggers displayed his prodigious skills as a storyteller and his great potential as a film director. Eggers claimed that it was only after directing this stage play that he was inspired to start making movies, bringing him back to Nosferatu and making the movie that’s been scaring up audiences in theaters.
Prior to his years directing feature-length movies, Eggers established himself as a more classical filmmaker with a handful of short films. Most of them are cinematic period pieces that were almost lost to time but have thankfully resurfaced online. While each of these short films is different, they each present Eggers’ distinct style of presenting stories in humanity’s past that explore the terrors of personal and familial decay. Here’s how Robert Eggers’ first three short films led him to direct Nosferatu.
Hansel and Gretel (2007)
Long before he directed 2015’s folk horror film The Witch, the young Eggers worked as a production designer on several short films. One of those projects was his first short film as a director: Hansel and Gretel. As the name implies, this 2007 half-hour short adapts the classic Brothers Grimm fairy tale of the same name, following the two titular kids as they are captured by a child-eating witch in the woods. Presented as a silent, black-and-white film, Hansel and Gretel introduces the Eggers’ style for making classical stories set in bygone eras.
This short film’s low budget is on full display with its grainy, hazy visuals. But even with the lack of sound from its cast, the film’s title cards provide poetic dialogue that makes the movie look like a visual storybook, which is especially fitting for the story it adapts.
Hansel & Gretel is a bold and promising undertaking by the young director, featuring a chilling atmosphere and incredible set design, specifically with the evil witch’s candy house. One can even see hints of The Witch in this project, setting the stage for Eggers’ rise to prominence as a film director.
The Tell-Tale Heart (2008)
Eggers’ next short film as director after Hansel and Gretel was an adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe’s classic short story of the same name, The Tell-Tale Heart. The horror director effectively builds a terrific and meticulous period piece with this film, which remains faithful to the source material with its creepy atmosphere, fantastic costumes and makeup, and top-tier set designs.
The fact that Eggers accomplished all this with such minimal resources and dialogue makes this movie even more remarkable. However, this sophomore short features crisper, more eye-catching visuals, and considerably higher production values than Hansel and Gretel. As a result, this film displays Eggers’ growth as a filmmaker since his previous short and better shows his skills as a horror storyteller.
Coincidentally, Eggers’ second short film displays many strong parallels to his second feature-length movie, The Lighthouse. Though they present stories in very different settings, both films feature a young man who’s sick of his demanding, mundane job and tries to kill his older employer and usurp control of their dwelling. Even though this was only his second short film as a director, Eggers established himself as a master of historical horror with slow-burning Gothic thriller.
Brothers (2014)
The 2014 short film Brothers follows two quarreling young siblings living with their mother in a farmhouse in the woods. Though the two boys are frequently at odds with each other, their lives forever change during a heated game of target practice in the forest, in which one sibling shoots the other. Based on the sets and the attire on display, this film is Eggers’s most modern-looking picture to date. It may even be the only one of his films actually set in the present day. Despite this, Brothers presents itself as another visual and thematic precursor to The Witch, which premiered roughly one year after this film’s release.
Once again, Eggers presents a story with an isolated, naturalistic setting and a family unit that slowly falls apart. However, Brothers doesn’t show any witches or any other supernatural creatures. It only shows two brothers who let their anger and hatred destroy each other. While it’s not a traditional horror story, it achieves the same horrific effects Eggers later attempts with success in The Witch and Nosferatu.
At the same time, this short shows how Eggers’ skills and style as a filmmaker have evolved even further since he directed The Tell-Tale Heart. Similar to The Witch, Brothers boasts a high-quality production with its beautiful, natural imagery, tense narrative, and incredible performances from its young cast.
The road to The Witch, Nosferatu, and beyond
In the end, seven years after directing Hansel and Gretel, Eggers had proven that he was ready to transition into helming feature-length horror films with Brothers. With all the classical period short films that he made throughout his movie career, he displayed a creative, distinctive style of storytelling and passion for the past. All these qualities made him the perfect choice to helm a Nosferatu remake and reinvigorate the story for the present.
Incredibly, The Witch‘s success in theaters led him to be hired to direct such a film as his second feature. Though this was a dream come true, Eggers wisely chose not to make it so soon and decided to further perfect his skills as he made The Lighthouse and The Northman.
Considering all the time and practice he put into his short films before making The Witch, Eggers knew the value of patience. Though the road to releasing Nosferatu was long, seeing how well Eggers’ remake has turned out in theaters, the film proved to be worth all those years of waiting.
