(Eco)horror of Masculinity: Confronting Abject Nature in the Films of Robert Eggers

Abstract

ABSTRACT This essay argues that Robert Egger’s films, The Witch and The Lighthouse deconstructs gender relations and their effects on the environment. I illustrate how the films construct masculinity as perpetually in crisis and as a struggle for more accumulation, while the feminine is perceived as monstrous and abject. Both films, I argue, provide a visceral encounter with human’s own connections to nature and the damage that occurs when we deny that dependence. My analysis takes on an intersectional ecofeminist perspective informed by the concepts of the abject and monstrous-feminine, suggesting that these terms can be useful in illustrating and interpreting an affective confrontation with oppressive dualisms.