The Lighthouse

Filmed in black and white on 35mm film, The Lighthouse brings a frightening reality in its presentation of surrealist insanity. After digging through all the tentacles and dead seagulls… it is difficult to find the hidden treasure, but that makes it all the more exhilarating.

Within the scope of filmmaking, this stands as a beautiful example of what happens when a creator has full control of his craft. No studio in their right mind would agree to make this film: a cerebral horror with two actors speaking colonial english on an uninhabitable island, filmed completely on black and white film with an intense and claustrophobic aspect ratio of 1.19:1 (a cropped box to today’s standard 1.85:1). In layman’s terms, films are not made like this for good reason. It is the effort to fully immerse the audience into the time period that really makes this film shine, but then it goes even further. Director Robert Eggers loves to send the audience right into the beating heart of his mythology, and for this film it literally bleeds into the medium of film itself. From the time-period production to the drunken sea shanties, the sailor fables resonate in every scene. The audience is completely transported into the 1890s, and the film’s presentation is so bizarre that it feels real.

Looking at the characters, it is hard to understand whether Willem Dafoe’s Thomas is a character or a psychological force. The film is centered in the uneasy mind of Robert Pattinson’s Ephraim Winslow, and since he cannot determine what Thomas is, neither can we. At one moment, he is an old man that likes to fart, and then the next moment he is a pile of contorting tentacles. So I can really only analyze the development of Winslow. This character only grows through the performance, and Robert Pattinson was amazing. Nothing about him is simply given to the audience; sure, his daily chores and actions against the work are shown, but it is how they dig into his tolerance that Robert Pattinson pulls it up to that next level. From the first night at the island, Winslow proves to be unstable, but it is how deep he sinks into the sea of madness that is the driving force of this film. Between the weight of his past sins and Thomas gaslighting him, there is nowhere for Winslow to run, and once the safety net of a rescue ship is blown away, he really begins to crack. The only assurance he has is the light, but his need to understand it pulls him even deeper into insanity. Honestly, with all the hype surrounding Joker, this film makes its attempt to show a character’s mental decomposition look pitiful (how ironic that Robert Pattinson is the new Batman). Winslow is a more active character to his own story; everything happens because of his mind, and he has to fight every temptation to the death. What Winslow sees, and how he tries to stay in control of his mind is the most unique and memorable character arc I have seen this year.

Robert Eggers has been a recent inspiration within horror cinema, and his second feature film really solidifies his style. The scares rarely come from loud noises and fake surprises. The plot does not rush from scare A to scare B; instead, Eggers builds and builds on the utterly eerie sense of isolating madness. What is real? How long have we been here? When will we be saved? After a while, Winslow never directly asks these questions, even after continuous assaults from Thomas, mainly because he is too afraid to know the truth. The score, the staging, and that unrelenting siren blasting into the roaring sea offer an explosive and overpowering sense of fear that pulls you under the water with no time to breathe. You never feel at ease; there is never a chance to relax and think of what is going on. The film plays with your emotions, somehow pulling your instincts out of your subconscious and forces them against you. The slow, tense atmosphere swirls into the storm that becomes its own narrative force, supported by the iconic hallucinations piercing the story’s reality throughout.

Overall, the main thought that runs through your mind is “what is happening,” but it becomes a fun game guessing what will happen next. From their fantastic performances, Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattinson have a special place in my heart, and the uniqueness of how this film was made is a sight to behold. Roger Eggers is definitely a name to look out for in the future as he continues to drive this new wave of horror. I wish this film had the traction to be in the spotlight, but I know it will be lost in the shifting tides of Oscar season. I will not go as far as to say this film is “life changing,” but I definitely will never challenge a sea gull ever again… or stay at a New England house near any body of water.

Story Rating: 9/10

Character Rating: 9/10

P.S.—If you want to go the extra step and understand what this film is trying to say, look up the Greek myths of Proteus and Prometheus