Systematic film analysis of the films «The witch» and «The lighthouse» directed by Robert Eggers

The main subject of the research of this article is horror or horror films. The films of the American director and screenwriter Robert Eggers - «The Witch» (2015) and «The Lighthouse» (2019) were selected as the films under study. These films are recognized by the community of film critics and viewers, and have been awarded high awards. The horror or horror genre has been developing throughout the XX century and currently occupies a special place in modern culture. The interest in horror films lies not only in the fact that they have a strong impact on the viewer, but also in the fact that the films reflect current social, political and cultural issues. The genesis of the horror genre is a story of changes in plots, directing techniques, accents that occur under the influence of transformations in the socio-cultural situation. The systematic approach (H. Corte), which we choose as the main analytical method, allows us to reveal changes both in the horror genre itself and in the culture within which it exists. This is made possible by considering the internal structure of the film and the context of its origin. As a result, we find that horror films, in our case folk-horror films «The Witch» and «The Lighthouse», represent the eternal and at the same time modern problems of humanity: violence and cruelty in child-parent relationships, the crisis state of the family, oppression of the weak, problems in building partner and friendly communication.