Robert Eggers has recommended the work of early Hollywood director Tod Browning to horror fans, describing a Criterion box set of Browning films as “fucking cool”. The endorsement matters because Eggers, whose films including The Witch, The Lighthouse and Nosferatu have made him a prominent modern horror filmmaker, highlights lesser-known silent-era works alongside the celebrated Freaks.

Eggers singled out the set containing Freaks, 1925’s The Mystic and 1927’s The Unknown, praising Lon Chaney’s transformative performance in the latter. Browning directed more than 60 films between the 1910s and 1939 and is best known for Freaks and Bela Lugosi’s Dracula; Eggers said his films reward deeper exploration for fans of Universal horror and silent horror.