Credits

• Director: Robert Eggers
• Writers: Robert Eggers, Max Eggers
• Cast: Willem Dafoe, Robert Pattinson, Valeriia Karamän, Logan Hawkes

Thomas Wake (Willem Dafoe) and Ephraim Winslow (Robert Pattinson) arrive to tend a lonely lighthouse. As the rookie, Winslow is saddled with the brutal grunt work while Wake obsessively guards the light at night. When a storm strands them past their four-week contract, resentment festers and sanity slips.

The plot is simple; the experience is not. Eggers fixates on an unhurried descent into madness that’s deliberately uncomfortable. I felt uneasy and tense for long stretches, and it won’t be for everyone—the walkout at my screening confirmed that. Even I checked my watch once or twice. If the aim was to disturb, mission accomplished, but I took little joy from it.

With basically only two speaking roles, the film lives or dies on its leads. Dafoe is terrific as the grizzled, possibly unhinged Wake (with more bodily fluids than expected). Pattinson matches him as a man with secrets of his own. Their thick accents are authentic, though occasionally hard to parse over the soundscape.

Shooting in stark black-and-white with a near-square 1.19:1 aspect ratio, cinematographer Jarin Blaschke crafts a claustrophobic, elemental world. I can’t imagine this working in color or widescreen; the aesthetic isolation is the point. Mark Korven’s booming, repetitive score and the foghorn motifs keep dread thrumming in the background.

The Lighthouse is a film I’m glad I saw—especially on a big screen—but I have no desire to revisit. The craft is immaculate; the tone and trajectory are punishing. Some will love it, others will loathe it. If you enjoy cinema that pushes and prods at you, it’s worth a look.

Watch the Trailer

Score