He’s only directed two feature films, so far, but Robert Eggers already has a signature style. His films The Witch and The Lighthouse are both historical period pieces in which superstition and paranoia bring desolation and doom upon people living in extreme isolation. Although they take place hundreds of years apart it would be easy to watch both films back-to-back and think that maybe… just maybe… they have a connection that runs deeper than the filmmaker’s taste in stories.
However, if you think The Witch and The Lighthouse are setting up a more complicated, interconnected canon between Robert Eggers’ various projects, you should probably think again. Bloody-Disgusting interviewed Eggers about the connection between the two films, and he revealed that their relationship isn’t literal.
“I mean,” Eggers says, “It’s not like I’m trying to make a ‘Robert Eggers Cinematic Universe’, where there’ll a third New England horror-adjacent folk tale where the ghosts of Thomasin the Witch teams up with the One-Eyed Seagull to harass a nice couple who starts a B&B somewhere in New England in contemporary days.”
That may or may not be the best pitch in the world, but while you’re pondering that possibility, Eggers goes on to clarify.
“But yeah, both films are me trying to commune with folk culture of my past and are me and my brother’s take on New England folk tales. So they’re certainly companion pieces,” Eggers confirms.
So although The Witch and The Lighthouse aren’t directly connected by characters or story – our apologies to everyone who likes that “bed and breakfast” idea – they do go together, and would probably make a wicked, mindbending double feature!
The Lighthouse (read our review) is now in limited release on the big screen.
