‘The Lighthouse’ Director’s List Of His Favorite Horror Films Is Full Of Lesser-Known Classics

Robert Eggers is the writer and director of The Witch (or, with all due respect to Black Phillip, The VVitch: A New England Folktale), one of the best horror movies of the 2010s, and The Lighthouse, which is being billed as horror when it’s really more of a “mindf*ck” buddy comedy about isolation. Being trapped in a lighthouse with Willem DaFoe sounds more fun than frightening, but that’s just me. Still, it’s the best horror-adjacent movie out in theaters this Halloween season (it’s doing very well at the box office), although if you’re looking for something spooky to watch at home, Eggers has some suggestions.

When asked on Reddit to name his “personal all-time favorite horror film,” Eggers replied with films, plural, from 1920’s The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari to 2003’s Twentynine Palms. Here’s the complete list, including the director, in the order Eggers wrote them out:

Nosferatu, F.W. Murnau, 1922

The Shining, Stanley Kubrick, 1980

Possession, Andrzej Żuławski, 1981

Alien, Ridley Scott, 1979

Psycho, Alfred Hitchcock, 1960

The Innocents, Jack Clayton, 1961

The Piano Teacher, Michael Haneke, 2001

Cries & Whispers, Ingmar Bergman, 1972

The Tennant, Roman Polanski, 1976

Angst, Gerald Kargl, 1983

Rosemary’s Baby, Roman Polanski, 1968

Onibaba, Kaneto Shindo, 1965

Cabinet of Dr Caligari, Robert Wiene, 1920

The Devil, Andrzej Żuławski, 1972

Hour of the Wolf, Ingmar Bergman, 1968

Blue Velvet, David Lynch, 1986

Lot Highway, David Lynch, 1997

Mulholland Drive, David Lynch, 2001

Twentynine Palms, Bruno Dumont, 2003

The Exorcist, William Friedkin, 1973

Don’t Look Now, Nicolas Roeg, 1973

The Birds, Alfred Hitchcock, 1963

Fall of the House of Usher, Jean Epstein, 1928

Repulsion, Roman Polanski, 1965

The Hunger, Tony Scott, 1983

Häxan, Benjamin Christensen, 1922

Going to a Halloween party thrown by Eggers must be intense. Instead of “Monster Mash,” he plays your inner monologue calling you a failure. It’s not available on Spotify.

For even more horror movie suggestions, we’ve got you covered.