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The Lighthouse

THE LIGHTHOUSE, a film about two men whose assignment as lighthouse keepers on a lonely rock island takes longer than planned, till food and alcohol becomes scarce, pulls you into a sense of impending doom and doesn’t let up.

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From the first frames of its severe black-and-white images and ominous sounds, THE LIGHTHOUSE pulls you into a sense of impending doom and doesn’t let up. That isn’t to say writer-director Robert Eggers’ sophomore film is humorless. In fact, it has far more humor than his first feature film, 2015’s THE WITCH, but that humor happens to be as pitch-black grim as the rest of the movie.

If you’ve seen THE WITCH, you’ll recognize that Eggers is interested in exploring many of the same themes here, such as seeing what happens when characters are dangerously cut off from the rest of humanity and left to contend with one bad omen after another, often in the form of remorseless nature and menacing animals. Ultimately, both the characters and the audience are left to wonder what’s real and what’s isolation-induced psychosis.

This time, we have two lighthouse keepers (or “wickies,” to use the 19th century parlance of the film) who are delivered upon a small dreary island off the coast of New England, where they set about a daily routine of backbreaking work. To be fair, the wickie who calls himself Winslow (Robert Pattinson) is the one doing all the unrewarding work, while Thomas (Willem Dafoe) barks orders by day and locks himself up in his beloved lighthouse by night.

What exactly is going on in that lighthouse during the long and lonely nights? Is the isolation, drudgery and booze to explain for all the weird visions of mermaids and tentacles? In place of the Christian fervor so central to THE WITCH, we have the strict rules and folklore of the sea, where Neptune is god and Davy Jones’ Locker is hell. Essentially, what we are invited to witness is Winsow’s slow descent to a fate much worse than drowning. As the saying goes, the sea is a cruel mistress, and few movies so vividly bring this sentiment to life as THE LIGHTHOUSE does.

Sean Erickson

Credits

USA 2019, 110 min
Genre: Horror
Director: Robert Eggers
Author: Max Eggers, Robert Eggers
DOP: Jarin Blaschke
Montage: Louise Ford
Music: Mark Korven
Distributor: Universal Pictures
Cast: Willem Dafoe, Robert Pattinson
FSK: 16
Release: 28.11.2019

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Screenings

  • OV Original version
  • OmU Original with German subtitles
  • OmeU Original with English subtitles
English/with English subtitles
All languages

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