Is Robert Eggers the New John Carpenter? Yes—But Forget Slashers
Let's just get this out of the way: Robert Eggers is not the next John Carpenter (at least, not in the way you think). He's not out here stockpiling masked slashers or cranking out synth-heavy scores. But if you're quietly tracking the evolution of American horror, you see it—Eggers is sliding toward icon status, inch by meticulously crafted inch.
“The Witch.” “The Lighthouse.” And then this year's “Nosferatu,” a film that left my skin crawling and my mind absolutely blitzed. Eggers doesn't make movies. He sculpts nightmares—layered in gold leaf, maybe, but nightmares all the same.
Now, according to Deadline, he's officially helming a new adaptation of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol.
Cue the ghost of Christmas anticipation.
“A Christmas Carol”—But Make It Eggers
Here's the twist: A Christmas Carol isn't a horror story. Not quite. But in Eggers' hands? I trust this man with my nightmares—why not with my Christmas nostalgia?
Sure, the tale's been told and retold until even your grandma's sick of it. But with Eggers—who knows? Marley might be even more spectral, more tragic. The ghosts will almost certainly be the most twisted versions you've seen onscreen. And rumor has it (please, let it be true) that Willem Dafoe is his top pick for Scrooge. Are you kidding? The possibilities are dizzying—Dafoe, wild-eyed, muttering to himself in candle-lit corners. It's already delicious.
Still, I find myself thinking—stubbornly, almost embarrassingly—about Krampus.
Why Eggers + Krampus = Christmas Horror Event of the Century
Stay with me. I know, there's already a Krampus movie (it's fun, if a tad goofy—sorry, not sorry). But imagine Eggers at the helm:
All that folklore. All that snow-wrapped terror. Krampus as the shadow to St. Nick's light—the devil in the rafters, drooling for the “naughty” kids.
Eggers would crush it. He'd take his Nosferatu playbook—keep the monster in the dark, let the audience's imagination run riot, then unleash hell in the third act. Sickled horns, kitchen-knife teeth—teeth for days, drool pooling on the snow. You just know he'd make not seeing the monster ten times scarier than actually seeing it.
My generation already knows Krampus, for better or worse. I remember the chatter online when the 2015 movie dropped—now, it's almost a meme. Eggers would make Krampus mythic again, like he did with vampires. The quiet dread, the folklore-drenched atmosphere, the sense that the monster is both literal and symbolic—he's the king of that. Sure, maybe we're due another round of kids terrified to go to bed on Christmas Eve. But hey—some traditions are worth rekindling.
On the Edge of Cinema's Darkest December
Imagine it—you, ninety strangers, packed in a dark theater December 2025 (Eggers' A Christmas Carol has no release date confirmed as of June 2024; Nosferatu debuted earlier this year). The tension, the cold, the promise of something strange stalking the edges of the frame. Goosebumps, actual goosebumps.
What Eggers does—what the greats do—is rewrite the myths. He finds monsters under floorboards we didn't even know were creaking.
And while I'll happily watch Dafoe scowl through Victorian London as Scrooge—I'll be thinking about Krampus. Antlers in the dark. Shadows in the snow. That particular Eggers chill, the one that stays with you long after the credits roll.
Some dreams are just too scary—or too fun—to let go.
