Few filmmakers have announced themselves as forcefully as Robert Eggers. A former theater designer from New Hampshire, he made his feature debut with The Witch, a meticulously researched folk-horror nightmare that won the directing prize at Sundance and helped put A24’s elevated-horror brand on the map. He followed it with The Lighthouse, a black-and-white fever dream starring Robert Pattinson and Willem Dafoe that earned an Oscar nomination for its cinematography; The Northman, a big-budget Viking revenge epic; and Nosferatu, his long-dreamed-of remake of the 1922 silent classic, which grossed more than $180 million worldwide and earned four Oscar nominations. Obsessive about period detail (his characters often speak in dialects pulled straight from historical texts), Eggers has yet to make a misfire, which makes ranking his films a matter of splitting hairs.
The Witch remains his best and The Northman lands fourth, though in a lineup this strong, fourth place is still essential viewing. Coming next: Werwulf, his 13th-century werewolf tale, opens in theaters December 25, 2026, and it will join this list once I’ve seen it. Here’s every Robert Eggers movie, ranked.
Quick list:
4. THE NORTHMAN (2022)
The Northman stars Alexander Skarsgård as Amleth, a vengeance-seeking Viking prince whose name is both an anagram of Hamlet and the inspiration for Shakespeare’s tragedy. It tells the Viking story that inspired Shakespeare’s work with a pen dipped in blood and fire, and Eggers pulls liberally from Viking and Icelandic mythology to craft a singularly epic explosion of cinematic verve.
A cinematic wonder of Viking violence and old-school melodramatic barbarity, The Northman is an unrelenting and gruesome historic epic that showcases an absolutely berserk performance from Alexander Skarsgård and all the visual style and fascinating dialogue you’d expect from auteur Robert Eggers.▶ Watch on Netflix · Read the full review
3. THE LIGHTHOUSE (2019)
In the rundown of worst roommate habits, persistent flatulence has to rank pretty highly. But I can’t imagine even the gnarliest gas could possibly compete with the sour stench of stale pee stewing in a bedpan in a tight communal space. Which brings us to The Lighthouse, a film wherein, from the first moments, odors assert themselves.
A24’s unsettling The Lighthouse is like a message in a bottle from a far off time, one that signals writer-director Robert Eggers’ established brilliance. Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattinson are electric as stranded men with unfurling sanity and unmoored moral compasses in this wholly original nautical folk tale about paranoia, desolation, mermaids, murder, moral decay, and self-destruction.▶ Watch on HBO Max · Read the full review
2. NOSFERATU (2024)
Evil is the plague of desire, heartache etched across time and space, in Robert Eggers’ immaculately constructed gothic horror, Nosferatu. A remake that leans on this classical haunt’s impressionistic terrors as much as it engages in a century-long conversation with the story itself, it mines the treasured material for new macabre corners to exploit and desecrate.
Eggers conjures a gothic horror that feels both timeless and daringly fresh. A masterful blend of craft, performance, and atmosphere, it’s a haunting reimagining that lingers like a shadow you can’t escape, an instant horror classic.▶ Watch on Hulu · Read the full review
1. THE WITCH (2015)
What do 1630, a silver cup, Christian fervor and a goat named Black Phillip have in common? The Witch. Unholy goodness through and through, Robert Eggers’ feature film debut is a horror masquerading as a costume drama that’s as beady, black and misshapen as the center of a goat’s eye.
Puritanical colonial horror wasn’t a subgenre until The Witch came along, and the first on the scene is often the best. Eggers sharply avoids the routes we’ve been trained to expect, instead opting for a wholly original familial horror story as frilly and thought out as 1630s garb, and nobody has better captured the majestic foreboding of the forest.▶ Watch on Prime Video · Read the full review
FAQ
What is the best Robert Eggers movie?
By my ranking, The Witch (2015) is Eggers’s best work.
When does Robert Eggers’s next movie come out?
Werwulf opens in theaters on December 25, 2026. I’ll add it to this ranking once I’ve seen it.
Where can I stream Eggers’s movies?
Entries above link to where each title is currently streaming, when it is, and to my full review. Streaming availability changes often, so check the links for the latest.
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By: Matt Oakes
Started blogging about film in college when the university paper wouldn’t have him. Dislikes your consensus film Twitter favorites. Devotee of horror movies that make him die a little inside. Catches films at festivals when he can. Proud SFCS and OFCS member and Tomatometer-approved critic. Editor-in-chief of Silver Screen Riot.
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