What's your favorite horror film? Are there any others you would like to see covered on the channel? I would probably add The Wailing to the few I mentioned in the video, that movie has one of my favorite ending sequences in cinema, which I re-watch frequently.
Great Work Dude. Its a little bit trashy, but you should watch Mouth of Madness from John Carpenter and The Void from 2016. Both are great Cosmic Horror films. And if you want to make an stupid Dude from Germany happy, then create an analysis like this here. Keep it well Folk.
@@borcht2520 I actually like In the Mouth of Madness, it's been a while but I remember it was very creepy and had that 90s atmosphere. I need to watch The Void though, it's been on my list since many people recommended it when I was looking for Lovecraftian horrors years ago, so thanks for the suggestions :)
The art of Robert's horror is absolutely insane. But when you're analyzing and in-depth approaching, the movie is clearer. This youtube channel is a hidden gem of short-video era.
I think the casual viewer does not appreciate the effort that went into analyzing, contrasting as well as comparing both movies. This is a gem in horror UA-cam & made me appreciate Eggers’ movies even more.
The thing that still haunts me to this this about the Lighthouse is the thought of "this is something I'm not privy to and should not be seeing" and I read something about the way the aspect ratio of the film was made to make the viewer feel that way. Brilliant.
your production value is insane! i was glued to the screen the entire time and so convinced this had hundreds of thousands views you deserve them fr. you've got a new subscriber for sure! agree with pretty much all of this. i really enjoy all of his references to folklore and mythology and there were even a few from the lighthouse you brought up that i had missed myself. though i loved the witch the lighthouse was one of my absolute favorite films and the lovecraftian horror aspect for me was genuinely unsettling. theres this claustrophic feeling of dread in all of egger's films that steadily builds and builds until culminating into a sort of euphoric almost orgasmic madness and terror as the minds of his characters break that is so eerie and disturbing to watch. very few horror films can unsettle me anymore but eggers' lands everytime. i can't wait to see his nosferatu film i know its gonna blow me out of the water and i look forward to seeing your take on it
I love The Lighthouse! I caught a screening of Nosferatu and when it got to the Castle Orlok scene, I felt like I was transported to the doorsteps of Hell and meeting the devil known as Count Orlok. The amount of detail Eggers put into Nosferatu is just brilliance of the most otherworldly beauty. It's grotesque, hypnotic, beautiful and sirenic, like a siren sprung from the womb of the deepest Hell. And I loved every disturbing minute of it!
Your comparison of the two films with Egger's bigger vision and influences is perfect - thank-you for putting it all together. Love the Lovecraft tie-in mentioned - always felt this was in there somewhere - the unknowable until it is known which breaks the mortal mind and leads to utter madness. Masterful director and can't wait for Nosferatu !!
Excellent analysis. I too love horror as a genre yet find it almost always disappointing and the worst movies made and unsatisfying and frustrating to say the least, So when we get someone like Robert eggers I too am excited beyond words. Glad you’re able to elucidate it for me ❤
Excellent video, particularly interesting now that I've seen Nosferatu (SPOILER WARNING) What you said about the monster disrupting the status quo and the protagonists failing to re-establish it in the Witch and the Lighthouse because they are in IT'S territory doesn't really apply to Nosferatu or the original Dracula, where the vampire makes an attempt to leave it's unknowable wilderness and intrude onto human civilisation in search of prey, only to fail because the humans are not the weaklings it expected. Dracula gets flummoxed by the scientific approach of his enemies, and Orlok, while explicitly resisting the enlightened approach of the skeptics, is instead defeated by the ancient archetype of a good person performing an act of willing self-sacrifice. For all his mysterious powers, Satanic undertones and the devastating plague he causes by his mere presence, Orlok is actually TOO human to be invincible; he is obsessed, lustful and arrogant in the same way an ordinary human narcissist could be, and thus gets tricked into a COMPLETELY avoidable defeat. A truly inhuman entity with his level of power wouldn't make the same mistake, which is why he loses while Black Philip and the Light break those who try to tame them. You talk about how the Witch and the Mermaid act as extensions/servants for the greater dark force behind them, which may be another reason Orlok fails. While his powers come from a bargain with hell, he is acting entirely according to his own will; he's not an agent of Satan working to bring about the downfall of humanity as a whole, he's just an evil man who wants to be pettily sadistic to others and dominate a girl he's got a hard-on for, so when he makes a human mistake there's no inhuman intellect to tug on his leash and put him back on course. The use of light is also an interesting contrast, because while the Light atop the lighthouse blasts an unwise human mind with forbidden knowledge, in Nosferatu it exposes and scours the shadow-lurking predator. It's quite telling that Skarsgard's rotting-corpse prosthetics, while certainly DISGUSTING to look at, aren't actually that SCARY when he's seen naked in the bright light, while the massive form he projects with his bulky furs and cloak in the darkness is much more intimidating (which is all the trailers and posters let you see of him). You talk about the twist when Black Philip shows he actually CAN speak after being silent and inscrutable for most of the film, and the Light never communicates clearly at all. Orlok talks a LOT, and while he's got an impressively booming and raspy voice with an accent that makes you concentrate to understand him, and he's mostly giving imperious commands and making fearsome threats, that still gives you SOMETHING to work with. Humans are geared towards communication, and understanding is the antidote to fear, so as soon as Orlok opens his mouth he is immediately meeting you on a human level and becomes less frightening (related to that, I notice that the trailers for the film also didn't let you hear his voice). Orlok's also not even all that GOOD with words; he has none of the charm and charisma that most versions of Dracula have, and while he tricks Thomas with a contract written in his own language and then tells Ellen Thomas sold her for gold, it's a very unsophisticated kind of wordplay compared to what you would see from a true Faustian bargain with a demon or a deal with the Fair Folk. If those archetypal monstrous contracts represent humanity's fascination with words and their power to both explain and obfuscate, then the crudity of Orlok's use of that tool is another sign that he's nowhere near as smart as he thinks he is, and he's underestimating his prey. Notably, the humans beat him with knowledge they gained from von Franz actually listening to Ellen's answers to his questions and the written words in his books, and a combination of Ellen's truthful communication of her plan to von Franz and verbal manipulation of both Thomas and Orlok himself, who never considers the possibility that this slip of a girl might be able to deceive him. The difference in isolation is also massive. Orlok's castle is in the remote wilderness, surrounded by beasts under his control and infested with shadows that he can seemingly teleport through at will, but most of the action takes place in a city where the protagonists are surrounded by people. While the large numbers of people are no help and simply raise the body count as they fall to Orlok's plague, and the protagonists remain isolated by their knowledge of what they're facing compared to the civilians who think there's a rational explanation, there is still an undeniable comfort to being in a bustling herd rather than alone in the middle of nowhere. Even when Thomas IS in Orlok's territory and questioning his sanity, the knowledge that there's a sane world and beloved people he can go back to gives him a strength of will Orlok didn't anticipate, compared to the other two films where the victims know they're on their own. Forever. Anyway, thanks a lot for the video, and to anyone who's read through this entire comment, thanks for your time!
Thanks for the thorough analysis about Nosferatu, it was an interesting read and I agree with a lot of it. I also noticed how Orlok and his connection to the human world is opposite of what I discussed in the video, he invades a human city and as you said loses a lot of his power by doing so, but vampires are a different archetype altogether so it would be interesting to take a look at this topic in a future video in more detail.
Good analysis... though I must admit that I prefer Orlok over Philip. I did enjoy Eggers' Witch movie but upon re-thinking about it, the fact that the deck is completely stacked in the favor of the monsters that they feel like some assholes punching on kindergarteners. They're scary from the POV of the family lost & isolated in the Evil Dead woods but being detached from that perspective makes Phil the Goat & the St-Tropez hags feel less untameable than they are frankly overpowered and overkill. Upon rewatching it, I wasn't that impressed with him rather than bemused. Even the last pact with Thomasin is less some clever Faustian bargain & more "So I punked your entire family with like 0 effort & you have 0 hope of survival in the wilderness. Rather than getting eaten my nudist colony of doom, wanna join it instead, sweet cheeks ? Butter's on me !" Orlok is defeatable, BUT only because the protagonists have few cards to play against and they have to play them right ! Honestly, they only did it by an inch and through Ellen's sacrifice so it's not exactly a jump for joy in the end. Not to mention that the lives lost to the plague are still felt in the bitter end... as for communication, while it is possible to talk TO Orlok, you can't really talk WITH him. I don't see it as Orlok giving anything to work with since all conversations seen are walking in a minefield with him. If he decides that a world is final, he'll let you know ONCE. After that, it's game over. So, ironically, I felt more awe at Count Orlok opposing people who had a chance against him than Black Philip and his filthy nudists were playing it on "very easy" mode, if not "God mode" ! Can't speak for the Lighthouse, I haven't seen it.
@@saidi7975 Thanks for your reply, it was interesting to read. I partially agree with you. Orlok is a threat to an entire city while the Witch(es) and Black Philip are only a threat to a single isolated family, so that does indicate a much greater degree of power and confidence from Orlok. That said, what you said about Black Philip undermining his own mystique by only revealing himself to essentially bully Thomasin once she's already lost everything could also apply to Orlok; he acts in an extremely petty and domineering way to Thomas and Ellen from an unassailable power advantage, and we don't know whether he would have the guts to go against someone on a more equal footing. What I took from his (as you said) very one-sided communications was actually that, for all his power, he's just a small-minded bully. When Ellen snaps back at him he TOTALLY fails to gaslight her into treating his predations as a dark romance, and quickly falls back onto threats which only have any weight because he has the raw power to back them up. While his enemies were stronger than he expected and did turn out to have a chance against him, it was such a slim chance that I think you could make the argument that Orlok is likewise playing his game on "very easy" mode, but manages to lose anyway entirely due to his arrogance and lack of self-discipline. Overall, I found Orlok vs Ellen a battle of Power (being able to assert your will over the people and situation around you) vs Strength (being able to assert your will over yourself) Orlok's power is immense, probably goes further than what we see on screen, and would give him a good chance of carving out an empire for himself if he made a serious effort to plan his approach. However, he never demonstrates any kind of courage because he is not used to being seriously challenged and (in his own words) is nothing more than an appetite who doesn't even try to master himself. In contrast, Ellen has virtually no power throughout the film and is constantly being preyed upon by Orlok or being (by modern standards) mistreated by her doctors and friends, but has a deep well of inner strength that let her withstand her suffering and build a life with the man she loves, and then to sacrifice that life for the sake of others by faking submission to Orlok. She then not only endures having his disgusting rotting body raping her (metaphorically or literally) for hours, but pretends to enjoy it to keep him distracted. I suppose the main reason I find Black Philip and the Light more intimidating monsters is because they retain their mystery; they might turn out to be petty losers if subjected to proper examination, but they evade such examination in their films and remain undefeated. In contrast, while we never get a full examination of the extent of Orlok's power, we do get a very good look at the lack of inner strength that leads to his downfall, which makes him seem much less formidable than he otherwise might have been.
Simple. Because he paints evil as pure evil. No misunderstood good guy who turned bad, no sob story, no paradise is losing here bro. His evil is simply just evil. Also yeah, he makes them look pure evil as well, masterfully.
The Story of 'Faust' is the story of Dr. Faustus (1604), a drama by Christopher Marlowe. You can find the similarity of this, in the Anime, 'Death Note' as well. And Winslow killing the Seagull is a reference of Mariner killing the albatross in the sea, from 'Rime of the Ancient Mariner' by S.T. Coleridge. If you are interested in Literature, you should totally read them... they will make you delve into the horror in a deeper and more raw and relatable way. It will give a more complex edge. By the way, amazing analysis.
Damn!! What a banger analysis!! Great mixing as well! I would love to hear your take on the Thing and other more lovecraftian horrors, if you haven't already! Subscribing!
In Nosferatu, we see the scariest vampire ever put to film. Orlok simply is-an eternal, insatiable appetite ( Professor Albin Eberhart von Franz: "Its desire is to consume all life on earth". / "Count Orlok: I am an appetite, nothing more." ) without beginning or end-he transcends moral judgment or even villainy. He becomes a cosmic horror, a manifestation of entropy, decay, or the inevitability of death itself. His existence as a fact of the universe, rather than a result of choice, makes him feel omnipresent and inescapable. There’s no reasoning with him, no defeating him in any permanent sense, because he represents something that’s always been and always will be. This timeless, indifferent quality taps into existential dread. Orlok isn’t evil in the traditional sense; he’s horrifying because he doesn’t need to be. His hunger is as natural as gravity or time, and that makes his threat feel universal, not personal. It’s a subtle but profound choice that adds to his immortality as a concept, rather than just a character.
This is an amazing film essay! I was blown away by the intro; your use of sound and imagery really nailed the sense of the complexity tied up with these films. I'm pondering at the moment about the idea of setting up another channel from this current one where I can create some dark fairy tale ambiences that was perhaps based on Nosferatu etc. Definitely subscribing!
@@MJGianeselloWhy? Even if Tarr didn't influence Eggers directly there is no doubt they both have many things in common. They both have a great debt to weimar expressionism and they both have an apocalyptic and surreal horror aesthetic,Tarr's settings are also amazing examples of heterotopia. Parts of The Lighthouse(visually at least) are also very reminiscent of The Turin Horse and Satantango (even if it is not deliberate); and ultimately they both are interested in exploring the inherent corruption and bleakness of humanity. (Although I would argue Tarr definitely also shows the transcendental quality of human dignity,which is often missing in Eggers)
The Witch kinda ruined movies for me for a good long while... It's perfect. It's a perfect 10/10 film on every level. The channel Novum just put out a 7 HOUR deep dive on The Witch, and I watched the entire thing in 2 days, riveted. _That's_ how good The Witch is. A video _about_ the movie, that's 3 times as long as the movie, utterly holds my attention. Eggers' other movies are excellent, and Ari Aster, Denis Villeneuve, Jordan Peele, and many others ARE making incredible work. But The Witch is singular for me. I'm not sure it will ever be topped....or how that could even be done.
Yeah, I saw it a long time ago. I don’t remember it too well (might re-watch it if you recommend), but I think I liked it since it wasn’t the usual kind of horror.
You had me until you said the monsters aren't evil because they aren't governed by our rules. Good and evil are not subjective things, there is inherent goodness and inherent evil in the world. I think that these movies are terrifying because it exposes you to the very antithesis of goodness and the evil creatures that intentionally try to corrupt that innocent goodness which is a very potent way of instilling fear in us since that inherent goodness is ripped from us.
My favorite Egger film was the Witch; that one affected me on a much more primal level. The Lighthouse kind of falls flat for me though. Something about the creepy forest setting and the demonic black goat entity and a family hallucinating witches and demons as they slowly go mad and turn on one another was much more unsettling to me. The Lighthouse completely fails to elicit a fear response from me, though, but I guess someone does have a reaction to it or it never would have done as well as it did.
@@loganross1861 Thanks, I really appreciate that. I try to keep the script dense and well-paced without making it hard to follow, but it’s tricky since everyone has different tastes. Glad it worked for you!
Amazing video - but I think you overlooked the fact that one of Thomas’s main struggles (and the reason he took the job on the isolated lighthouse) is due to his sexuality. He’s homosexual. He killed Ephraim partially due to his own conflicting desires for the man. He uses the imagery of the siren as a way to repress and hopefully overcome these desires, but he fails.
I don’t think that’s a given, or the main interpretive key to the movie- you can see some ambiguity is explicit on the script, but I’d be wary of interpreting that as the film’s main theme or thesis.
Either it's due to shame because of that. Or it's due to the shame because he got turned on by killing him. Hence the connection between the fact that he smokes in two instances in the film, one is after his wanks in the tool shed, the other is after he killed winslow(as he recounts) and after he kills wake, as we see happen.
@ The main theme? No, that’s not what I was implying. But it was something the author of the video failed to mention, and a main reason for Thomas’s internal turmoil and the siren imagery.
@@baileyt.931 you said ‘’main struggle” though, when the text at most supports one moment of weird ambiguity when they’re drunkenly dancing after years of isolation, and then all else I can recall is the siren imagery, which maybe connotes a general yoniphobia which is harshly unknown in contemporary heterosexual men and boys, castration anxiety etc, the “fuck a steak” line etc. There are a multitude of anxieties, the most plot-authorial being probably their respective implied prior murder, and the possibility they are somehow the same man. A queer-first reading of this would no doubt be interesting, but I do think your statement (while certainly not totally off base or objectionable) is prioritizing your personal interests or lens at the expense of the broader productive ambiguities of the work.
yo your concept of heterotepia seems to me strongly wrong. it means that if you were going in to a social "room", lets say into a bank on a working tuesday, it depends on ur social role markers, habiti etc. and also which of these artefacts it aknowledges which actions you can do
What's your favorite horror film? Are there any others you would like to see covered on the channel?
I would probably add The Wailing to the few I mentioned in the video, that movie has one of my favorite ending sequences in cinema, which I re-watch frequently.
the monster from SMILE 2, The Ritual, No One Comes Out Alive, please.
Great Work Dude. Its a little bit trashy, but you should watch Mouth of Madness from John Carpenter and The Void from 2016. Both are great Cosmic Horror films. And if you want to make an stupid Dude from Germany happy, then create an analysis like this here. Keep it well Folk.
@@borcht2520 I actually like In the Mouth of Madness, it's been a while but I remember it was very creepy and had that 90s atmosphere. I need to watch The Void though, it's been on my list since many people recommended it when I was looking for Lovecraftian horrors years ago, so thanks for the suggestions :)
try - Noroi: The Curse, Incantation, The medium.
@@otikotcheishvili1229 Thanks! I love Noroi and Incantation was something I watched fairly recently and it was great too. I'll check out The Medium.
The art of Robert's horror is absolutely insane. But when you're analyzing and in-depth approaching, the movie is clearer. This youtube channel is a hidden gem of short-video era.
I believe I once heard someone say that the Witch is like watching something that you shouldn’t be. Truly an eerie film.
I think the casual viewer does not appreciate the effort that went into analyzing, contrasting as well as comparing both movies. This is a gem in horror UA-cam & made me appreciate Eggers’ movies even more.
The thing that still haunts me to this this about the Lighthouse is the thought of "this is something I'm not privy to and should not be seeing" and I read something about the way the aspect ratio of the film was made to make the viewer feel that way. Brilliant.
Fantastic video! I firmly believe Robert Eggers is and will continue to be one of the greatest directors of our time 👏🏻
That’s a reach but I respect it
I second that opinion
This is magical.
Thank you so much for creating this!!
Eggers is on a whole other level.
Love your work man, another great essay
Thank you so much!
This is the best video essay on Robert Eggers work's . Now I want you to have a podcast with him. That would be surreal.
Great video essay!! Good job
your production value is insane! i was glued to the screen the entire time and so convinced this had hundreds of thousands views you deserve them fr. you've got a new subscriber for sure! agree with pretty much all of this. i really enjoy all of his references to folklore and mythology and there were even a few from the lighthouse you brought up that i had missed myself. though i loved the witch the lighthouse was one of my absolute favorite films and the lovecraftian horror aspect for me was genuinely unsettling. theres this claustrophic feeling of dread in all of egger's films that steadily builds and builds until culminating into a sort of euphoric almost orgasmic madness and terror as the minds of his characters break that is so eerie and disturbing to watch. very few horror films can unsettle me anymore but eggers' lands everytime. i can't wait to see his nosferatu film i know its gonna blow me out of the water and i look forward to seeing your take on it
I love The Lighthouse! I caught a screening of Nosferatu and when it got to the Castle Orlok scene, I felt like I was transported to the doorsteps of Hell and meeting the devil known as Count Orlok. The amount of detail Eggers put into Nosferatu is just brilliance of the most otherworldly beauty. It's grotesque, hypnotic, beautiful and sirenic, like a siren sprung from the womb of the deepest Hell. And I loved every disturbing minute of it!
Your comparison of the two films with Egger's bigger vision and influences is perfect - thank-you for putting it all together.
Love the Lovecraft tie-in mentioned - always felt this was in there somewhere - the unknowable until it is known which breaks the mortal mind and leads to utter madness.
Masterful director and can't wait for Nosferatu !!
Excellent analysis. I too love horror as a genre yet find it almost always disappointing and the worst movies made and unsatisfying and frustrating to say the least, So when we get someone like Robert eggers I too am excited beyond words. Glad you’re able to elucidate it for me ❤
Excellent video, particularly interesting now that I've seen Nosferatu (SPOILER WARNING)
What you said about the monster disrupting the status quo and the protagonists failing to re-establish it in the Witch and the Lighthouse because they are in IT'S territory doesn't really apply to Nosferatu or the original Dracula, where the vampire makes an attempt to leave it's unknowable wilderness and intrude onto human civilisation in search of prey, only to fail because the humans are not the weaklings it expected. Dracula gets flummoxed by the scientific approach of his enemies, and Orlok, while explicitly resisting the enlightened approach of the skeptics, is instead defeated by the ancient archetype of a good person performing an act of willing self-sacrifice.
For all his mysterious powers, Satanic undertones and the devastating plague he causes by his mere presence, Orlok is actually TOO human to be invincible; he is obsessed, lustful and arrogant in the same way an ordinary human narcissist could be, and thus gets tricked into a COMPLETELY avoidable defeat. A truly inhuman entity with his level of power wouldn't make the same mistake, which is why he loses while Black Philip and the Light break those who try to tame them.
You talk about how the Witch and the Mermaid act as extensions/servants for the greater dark force behind them, which may be another reason Orlok fails. While his powers come from a bargain with hell, he is acting entirely according to his own will; he's not an agent of Satan working to bring about the downfall of humanity as a whole, he's just an evil man who wants to be pettily sadistic to others and dominate a girl he's got a hard-on for, so when he makes a human mistake there's no inhuman intellect to tug on his leash and put him back on course.
The use of light is also an interesting contrast, because while the Light atop the lighthouse blasts an unwise human mind with forbidden knowledge, in Nosferatu it exposes and scours the shadow-lurking predator. It's quite telling that Skarsgard's rotting-corpse prosthetics, while certainly DISGUSTING to look at, aren't actually that SCARY when he's seen naked in the bright light, while the massive form he projects with his bulky furs and cloak in the darkness is much more intimidating (which is all the trailers and posters let you see of him).
You talk about the twist when Black Philip shows he actually CAN speak after being silent and inscrutable for most of the film, and the Light never communicates clearly at all. Orlok talks a LOT, and while he's got an impressively booming and raspy voice with an accent that makes you concentrate to understand him, and he's mostly giving imperious commands and making fearsome threats, that still gives you SOMETHING to work with. Humans are geared towards communication, and understanding is the antidote to fear, so as soon as Orlok opens his mouth he is immediately meeting you on a human level and becomes less frightening (related to that, I notice that the trailers for the film also didn't let you hear his voice).
Orlok's also not even all that GOOD with words; he has none of the charm and charisma that most versions of Dracula have, and while he tricks Thomas with a contract written in his own language and then tells Ellen Thomas sold her for gold, it's a very unsophisticated kind of wordplay compared to what you would see from a true Faustian bargain with a demon or a deal with the Fair Folk. If those archetypal monstrous contracts represent humanity's fascination with words and their power to both explain and obfuscate, then the crudity of Orlok's use of that tool is another sign that he's nowhere near as smart as he thinks he is, and he's underestimating his prey. Notably, the humans beat him with knowledge they gained from von Franz actually listening to Ellen's answers to his questions and the written words in his books, and a combination of Ellen's truthful communication of her plan to von Franz and verbal manipulation of both Thomas and Orlok himself, who never considers the possibility that this slip of a girl might be able to deceive him.
The difference in isolation is also massive. Orlok's castle is in the remote wilderness, surrounded by beasts under his control and infested with shadows that he can seemingly teleport through at will, but most of the action takes place in a city where the protagonists are surrounded by people. While the large numbers of people are no help and simply raise the body count as they fall to Orlok's plague, and the protagonists remain isolated by their knowledge of what they're facing compared to the civilians who think there's a rational explanation, there is still an undeniable comfort to being in a bustling herd rather than alone in the middle of nowhere. Even when Thomas IS in Orlok's territory and questioning his sanity, the knowledge that there's a sane world and beloved people he can go back to gives him a strength of will Orlok didn't anticipate, compared to the other two films where the victims know they're on their own. Forever.
Anyway, thanks a lot for the video, and to anyone who's read through this entire comment, thanks for your time!
Thanks for the thorough analysis about Nosferatu, it was an interesting read and I agree with a lot of it.
I also noticed how Orlok and his connection to the human world is opposite of what I discussed in the video, he invades a human city and as you said loses a lot of his power by doing so, but vampires are a different archetype altogether so it would be interesting to take a look at this topic in a future video in more detail.
Good analysis... though I must admit that I prefer Orlok over Philip.
I did enjoy Eggers' Witch movie but upon re-thinking about it, the fact that the deck is completely stacked in the favor of the monsters that they feel like some assholes punching on kindergarteners. They're scary from the POV of the family lost & isolated in the Evil Dead woods but being detached from that perspective makes Phil the Goat & the St-Tropez hags feel less untameable than they are frankly overpowered and overkill.
Upon rewatching it, I wasn't that impressed with him rather than bemused. Even the last pact with Thomasin is less some clever Faustian bargain & more "So I punked your entire family with like 0 effort & you have 0 hope of survival in the wilderness. Rather than getting eaten my nudist colony of doom, wanna join it instead, sweet cheeks ? Butter's on me !"
Orlok is defeatable, BUT only because the protagonists have few cards to play against and they have to play them right !
Honestly, they only did it by an inch and through Ellen's sacrifice so it's not exactly a jump for joy in the end. Not to mention that the lives lost to the plague are still felt in the bitter end...
as for communication, while it is possible to talk TO Orlok, you can't really talk WITH him. I don't see it as Orlok giving anything to work with since all conversations seen are walking in a minefield with him. If he decides that a world is final, he'll let you know ONCE. After that, it's game over.
So, ironically, I felt more awe at Count Orlok opposing people who had a chance against him than Black Philip and his filthy nudists were playing it on "very easy" mode, if not "God mode" !
Can't speak for the Lighthouse, I haven't seen it.
@@saidi7975 Thanks for your reply, it was interesting to read.
I partially agree with you.
Orlok is a threat to an entire city while the Witch(es) and Black Philip are only a threat to a single isolated family, so that does indicate a much greater degree of power and confidence from Orlok.
That said, what you said about Black Philip undermining his own mystique by only revealing himself to essentially bully Thomasin once she's already lost everything could also apply to Orlok; he acts in an extremely petty and domineering way to Thomas and Ellen from an unassailable power advantage, and we don't know whether he would have the guts to go against someone on a more equal footing.
What I took from his (as you said) very one-sided communications was actually that, for all his power, he's just a small-minded bully. When Ellen snaps back at him he TOTALLY fails to gaslight her into treating his predations as a dark romance, and quickly falls back onto threats which only have any weight because he has the raw power to back them up. While his enemies were stronger than he expected and did turn out to have a chance against him, it was such a slim chance that I think you could make the argument that Orlok is likewise playing his game on "very easy" mode, but manages to lose anyway entirely due to his arrogance and lack of self-discipline.
Overall, I found Orlok vs Ellen a battle of Power (being able to assert your will over the people and situation around you) vs Strength (being able to assert your will over yourself)
Orlok's power is immense, probably goes further than what we see on screen, and would give him a good chance of carving out an empire for himself if he made a serious effort to plan his approach. However, he never demonstrates any kind of courage because he is not used to being seriously challenged and (in his own words) is nothing more than an appetite who doesn't even try to master himself.
In contrast, Ellen has virtually no power throughout the film and is constantly being preyed upon by Orlok or being (by modern standards) mistreated by her doctors and friends, but has a deep well of inner strength that let her withstand her suffering and build a life with the man she loves, and then to sacrifice that life for the sake of others by faking submission to Orlok. She then not only endures having his disgusting rotting body raping her (metaphorically or literally) for hours, but pretends to enjoy it to keep him distracted.
I suppose the main reason I find Black Philip and the Light more intimidating monsters is because they retain their mystery; they might turn out to be petty losers if subjected to proper examination, but they evade such examination in their films and remain undefeated. In contrast, while we never get a full examination of the extent of Orlok's power, we do get a very good look at the lack of inner strength that leads to his downfall, which makes him seem much less formidable than he otherwise might have been.
Absolutely perfect. Actually working on my world building and your video and analysis gave me so much insights on the direction i would go.
I'm glad to hear that, good luck with your world!
Amazing video ⚡
I watched These two movies many times and inspired me to write some short stories
Keep up the good work ✨
great video dude, deserves more views!
Thanks, I appreciate it!
Simple. Because he paints evil as pure evil. No misunderstood good guy who turned bad, no sob story, no paradise is losing here bro. His evil is simply just evil. Also yeah, he makes them look pure evil as well, masterfully.
Wow you caught the similarities in the 2 movies I didn’t even notice. She rose up to darkness and he was cast down from the light .
OOH nice catch!
The Story of 'Faust' is the story of Dr. Faustus (1604), a drama by Christopher Marlowe.
You can find the similarity of this, in the Anime, 'Death Note' as well.
And Winslow killing the Seagull is a reference of Mariner killing the albatross in the sea, from 'Rime of the Ancient Mariner' by S.T. Coleridge.
If you are interested in Literature, you should totally read them... they will make you delve into the horror in a deeper and more raw and relatable way. It will give a more complex edge. By the way, amazing analysis.
Damn!! What a banger analysis!! Great mixing as well! I would love to hear your take on the Thing and other more lovecraftian horrors, if you haven't already! Subscribing!
Thank you for this superb dual analysis which garners for you an automatic like and subscribe!
Your writing style is insanely good
Great video man
The lighthouse is one of my favorite horror movies ever, and I normally hate any somewhat modern movie.
Glad to have seen it in theatres.
I don’t like horror but his films have an attractive mystique and I can’t look away
In Nosferatu, we see the scariest vampire ever put to film. Orlok simply is-an eternal, insatiable appetite ( Professor Albin Eberhart von Franz: "Its desire is to consume all life on earth". / "Count Orlok: I am an appetite, nothing more." ) without beginning or end-he transcends moral judgment or even villainy. He becomes a cosmic horror, a manifestation of entropy, decay, or the inevitability of death itself. His existence as a fact of the universe, rather than a result of choice, makes him feel omnipresent and inescapable. There’s no reasoning with him, no defeating him in any permanent sense, because he represents something that’s always been and always will be.
This timeless, indifferent quality taps into existential dread. Orlok isn’t evil in the traditional sense; he’s horrifying because he doesn’t need to be. His hunger is as natural as gravity or time, and that makes his threat feel universal, not personal. It’s a subtle but profound choice that adds to his immortality as a concept, rather than just a character.
One thing I noticed: did the plague leave? They didn't clear that up at the end.
@@wiinterflowers95 If you mean the 2025 version it was mentioned by Von Franz that when Orlok was destroyed the plague would lift.
@ Yes. Thank you for clearing this up.
This is an amazing film essay! I was blown away by the intro; your use of sound and imagery really nailed the sense of the complexity tied up with these films. I'm pondering at the moment about the idea of setting up another channel from this current one where I can create some dark fairy tale ambiences that was perhaps based on Nosferatu etc. Definitely subscribing!
Thanks! The ambience was super important to me for setting the tone, so I’m really glad it came through.
11:00 i thought he would say "hawk tuaw"
wow, amazing video bro
Amazing video!
Everytime i watch The Lighthouse i cant go through the Seagull scene without saying «i am vengeance».
I would love it if you cover Bela Tarr. There is no doubt Eggers took a lot from Tarr, both stylistically and thematically.
That's definitely something I've been considering
Not...really...at all😅
@@MJGianeselloWhy? Even if Tarr didn't influence Eggers directly there is no doubt they both have many things in common. They both have a great debt to weimar expressionism and they both have an apocalyptic and surreal horror aesthetic,Tarr's settings are also amazing examples of heterotopia. Parts of The Lighthouse(visually at least) are also very reminiscent of The Turin Horse and Satantango (even if it is not deliberate); and ultimately they both are interested in exploring the inherent corruption and bleakness of humanity. (Although I would argue Tarr definitely also shows the transcendental quality of human dignity,which is often missing in Eggers)
@JustOneMoreThing_YT Please do!
Busted a little early not including Nosferatu
It will take some time before I can cover Nosferatu, and I wanted to give it its own video.
Amazing video
ONLY 30k subs??? You deserve WAY more holy shit bro 🔥
The Witch kinda ruined movies for me for a good long while...
It's perfect. It's a perfect 10/10 film on every level. The channel Novum just put out a 7 HOUR deep dive on The Witch, and I watched the entire thing in 2 days, riveted. _That's_ how good The Witch is. A video _about_ the movie, that's 3 times as long as the movie, utterly holds my attention. Eggers' other movies are excellent, and Ari Aster, Denis Villeneuve, Jordan Peele, and many others ARE making incredible work. But The Witch is singular for me. I'm not sure it will ever be topped....or how that could even be done.
Have you seen Let the right one in?
Yeah, I saw it a long time ago. I don’t remember it too well (might re-watch it if you recommend), but I think I liked it since it wasn’t the usual kind of horror.
Can we start a petition to get Robert Eggers to remake Logan's Run?
You had me until you said the monsters aren't evil because they aren't governed by our rules. Good and evil are not subjective things, there is inherent goodness and inherent evil in the world. I think that these movies are terrifying because it exposes you to the very antithesis of goodness and the evil creatures that intentionally try to corrupt that innocent goodness which is a very potent way of instilling fear in us since that inherent goodness is ripped from us.
My favorite Egger film was the Witch; that one affected me on a much more primal level. The Lighthouse kind of falls flat for me though. Something about the creepy forest setting and the demonic black goat entity and a family hallucinating witches and demons as they slowly go mad and turn on one another was much more unsettling to me. The Lighthouse completely fails to elicit a fear response from me, though, but I guess someone does have a reaction to it or it never would have done as well as it did.
Nice video! But pace is so fast!
Thanks for the feedback, I'll keep that in mind!
Try watching at .75x speed 😊
Perfect pacing if I may say so!
@JustOneMoreThing_YT
No the pacing is great it’s why I kept watching it’s dense and wastes no time. Intellectual concentrate thank you
@@loganross1861 Thanks, I really appreciate that. I try to keep the script dense and well-paced without making it hard to follow, but it’s tricky since everyone has different tastes. Glad it worked for you!
Amazing video - but I think you overlooked the fact that one of Thomas’s main struggles (and the reason he took the job on the isolated lighthouse) is due to his sexuality. He’s homosexual. He killed Ephraim partially due to his own conflicting desires for the man. He uses the imagery of the siren as a way to repress and hopefully overcome these desires, but he fails.
I don’t think that’s a given, or the main interpretive key to the movie- you can see some ambiguity is explicit on the script, but I’d be wary of interpreting that as the film’s main theme or thesis.
Either it's due to shame because of that. Or it's due to the shame because he got turned on by killing him. Hence the connection between the fact that he smokes in two instances in the film, one is after his wanks in the tool shed, the other is after he killed winslow(as he recounts) and after he kills wake, as we see happen.
@ The main theme? No, that’s not what I was implying. But it was something the author of the video failed to mention, and a main reason for Thomas’s internal turmoil and the siren imagery.
I think you might be misinterpreting the meaning you're putting into the movie, as objective themes or intentions of the story.
@@baileyt.931 you said ‘’main struggle” though, when the text at most supports one moment of weird ambiguity when they’re drunkenly dancing after years of isolation, and then all else I can recall is the siren imagery, which maybe connotes a general yoniphobia which is harshly unknown in contemporary heterosexual men and boys, castration anxiety etc, the “fuck a steak” line etc. There are a multitude of anxieties, the most plot-authorial being probably their respective implied prior murder, and the possibility they are somehow the same man. A queer-first reading of this would no doubt be interesting, but I do think your statement (while certainly not totally off base or objectionable) is prioritizing your personal interests or lens at the expense of the broader productive ambiguities of the work.
Bramayugam ❤
He should listen to In utero by nirvana, (their 3rd album)
Does anything eventually happen in The Lighthouse?
yo your concept of heterotepia seems to me strongly wrong. it means that if you were going in to a social "room", lets say into a bank on a working tuesday, it depends on ur social role markers, habiti etc. and also which of these artefacts it aknowledges which actions you can do
love ur video though... i just wanted to inform you/comment on... did not want to devaluate it
“not necessarily evil”
Yo
SPOILER WARNING PLEASE
Already has one at the beginning
Dont watch a 20 minute video about these movies that have been out for years then
The worst monsters are the ones you sleep next to. Don’t be afraid of things that are not real.
Nosferatu was not great