Alone on an Island, Two Lighthouse Keepers Unleash Their Inner Darkness

Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattinson in "The Lighthouse"
Photo Credit: RottenTomatoes.com

Almost five years ago, writer-director Robert Eggers debuted his first feature film, “The Witch,” at the Sundance Film Festival  With this movie, he gave audiences a nerve-shredding, slow-burn descent into turmoil.  It presented an inventive new voice in the genre, giving us a frightening New England folktale.

Eggers now brings us another New England horror story with “The Lighthouse.”  As great as “The Witch” was, Eggers manages to top himself with another film about people thrown into terror and teetering on the edge of their sanity, and this movie displays its raw power by Eggers direction and two mammoth performances.

In the late 19th century, Ephraim Winslow (Robert Pattinson) travels to a lighthouse off the coast of New England for four weeks of work, all while being under the watch of Thomas Wake (Willem Dafoe).  While their time together begins well enough at first, they soon come face to face with a madness that threatens to destroy them both.

Pattinson delivers a performance that draws us in with his character’s ordinary need to find honest work, only to then become trapped in a devastating turn of events from which there doesn’t seem to be any escape.  He shows Ephraim’s strong disquiet towards the unsettling events, which mirrors the audience’s own reactions to such scenes, with them matching his surprise and horror at the terrifying events that plague the two characters.  It’s apparent from the beginning that Pattinson’s character has some issues weighing on him, and to see him slowly unravel as these deep troubles come to the forefront make for a startling vision of someone losing his mind.  Pattinson has proven his astounding acting skills in his post-“Twilight” career many times, such as with films like “The Lost City of Z,” “Good Time,” and “High Life,” but he still manages to impress us with the depths to which he’s willing to go with his latest character, and the final half hour displays some of the finest work that he’s ever accomplished.

Dafoe puts every ounce of his power into his role as Thomas.  His masterful command of a seafaring dialect helps bring you into his world where his obsessions have taken what seem to be an irreversible toll on him.  This is a performance where it’s impossible to not become mesmerized by what’s happening in front of you.  Dafoe inhabits his character to such a degree that the madness that ripples in his eyes sends shock waves across the theater, creating a thunderous atmosphere that makes this film a visceral experience.  There’s a moment in the film that solidifies Dafoe’s performance as one of the best of the year, where he gives Winslow his “Let Neptune strike ye dead” monologue, and the way in which he’s shown on screen couldn’t be more chilling, between his maniacal persona and the way in which the lighting and shadows hit his face that make him a ghoulish presence.  Just when you think the state of apprehension in which you find yourself can’t get any stronger, Dafoe will make you reconsider that with this sequence.       

The work that Pattinson and Dafoe do with their shared screen time is so tremendous that you can’t believe the screen is still functioning once the movie is over.  This is a battle of two chaotic minds that creates a perfect storm with a power as strong as the howling winds and crashing of the waves that surround Ephraim and Thomas.  They’re in an ongoing conflict of who’s-deceiving-who, and the intensity that their animosity reaches will leave you wondering what sort of outcome the movie has in store for them.  Pattinson and Dafoe will grip you as they bear the souls of their characters as Ephraim and Thomas are torn apart by each other and suffer irreparable damage.

The screenplay by Eggers and his brother, Max, takes a simple story of cabin fever and takes a dive into the psyches of the two main characters as their faults begin to manifest within their shelter.  This is a movie that thrives on the constant interplay between Ephraim and Thomas and how they respond to the horror that soon takes over their lives.  With the story placing us right in the middle of these two dueling individuals, we’re given a chance to learn much about both of the characters.  As we get to know them, we realize that the Eggers haven’t made either of them a hero or a villain, but rather two people who are victims of a cruel fate placed upon them by their surroundings, an aspect of the narrative that causes the viewer to not give allegiance to either character, but instead fear for both of them.

Just as Eggers did for “The Witch,” it’s evident that he and his brother did a tremendous amount of research to make sure that the form of English that the characters speak is accurate to the time period that the movie presents.  This helps to transport you to a different period in history, investing you in the dialogue and providing a remarkable authenticity to the setting and characters.

Eggers reunites with his “Witch” cinematographer, Jarin Blaschke, to construct another film whose visuals are as gorgeous as they are haunting.  This time around, Blaschke uses black-and-white cinematography, and by doing so, he emphasizes the hopelessness of Ephraim and Thomas’ situation and strengthens the aspect of how the characters are only surrounded by water and are without any signs of lushness to their environment.  They always seem to be in the middle of a storm or under the threat of one, be it an actual storm or a psychological one, and there isn’t any better way to present that than with the bleak use of black-and-white as we become stranded in the middle of nothing. 

The aspect ratio that’s used for “The Lighthouse” is 1.19:1, which presents the image in more of a square-shaped frame, heightening the sense of being stuck in a place with someone for a lengthy period of time with very little room in which to move around.  We’re given several long takes that bring us throughout the main house and provide us with an idea of the limited space that Ephraim and Thomas have for where they’re living, and we feel the claustrophobia of being in close quarters with a stranger and not knowing if they mean the other person harm, which is something that’s felt in both Ephraim and Thomas.

While many horror movies these days take place in the present, or a few decades in the past in some cases, Eggers gives us new atmospheres of horror to explore as he unleashes terror in stories that take place a long, long time ago.  With “The Witch” and “The Lighthouse,” you can see how he has many things in mind that he wishes to accomplish, which are giving us flawed and richly detailed characters, a disturbing story, a well-researched view of the narrative’s time period, and a relentless sense of dread, and he fulfills every one of these tasks.  This year, we’ve been fortunate to have Jordan Peele and Ari Aster release their second horror films, and now, Eggers joins that prestigious company and shows that he’s a filmmaker who can craft terrifying stories that are worthy of a dissection.

“The Lighthouse” will shock, scare, and mentally drain you as you go on a journey through the devastating change that your life can take when your demons wash ashore.

Grade: A