The Lighthouse (2019) Review

The Lighthouse (2019)

The Lighthouse follows two lighthouse keepers who try to keep their sanity while stranded at their post. 

As soon as I saw A24 flash across the screen, I knew this was gonna be a good one. At this point, I’m just disappointed it’s taken me so long to watch this because it was an otherworldly experience of the mind and senses. Every second of every shot was beautifully haunting, a fact that is due to them using Double X 35mm film with orthochromatic elements mixed in, to give it an eery style that naturally just makes you unsettled due to the colors and lack of light. The late-19th century's influence is heavily present in the style and production, all seeming very true to the time period, as well as the dialogue, which is genuinely some of the best wording and writing I’ve seen in film ever. 

Most fascinating however, is the movie’s ability to evoke a deep sense of paranoia and second guessing, showing just enough to leave you with a pit in your stomach to whether it is just madness overtaking the lighthouse keepers, or if it’s supernatural entities that lurk in the shadows when no one is looking. It all seems to be there, giving you answers to questions, like the consequences of killing sea birds, but raises even more questions in its displacement of time and the mind, with both going absolutely mad, a progression that is as powerful as it is horrifying. It’s ability to invoke Kubrick and Lynch in it’s subtle horror that lingers throughout each scene is something I’ve hardly ever seen done, especially to this extent. At it's core, it is a character study of the human mind and the damning effects that isolation have on the psyche of those subjected to such, leaving Winslow in particular unable to distinguish the difference between reality and fiction.

Much of the greatness of this though comes from it’s leads in Robert Pattinson and Willem Defoe, who are just fantastic. Pattinson is subtle in his style, really bringing a passion to the mysterious character. His particular progression into insanity is so well done, jumping off the screen in his search for the truth. Defoe on the other hand, puts forth without a doubt his greatest performance to date, already containing a maddening fury to him that only becomes more constant with each rage and expletive filled monologue. He chews each scene to the bone and I am amazed that he got snubbed an Oscar with this performance. 

The Lighthouse, the second film by The Witch’s Robert Eggers, is a slow, maddening decent into insanity, that reaches into near paradoxical territory at times, in it’s quest to box you into a claustrophobic nightmare for Thomas and Winslow, where the elusive light of the lighthouse is the truth beyond the lies, but what is that truth? Are they truly in a lighthouse, stranded by the storm? Or is it Hell itself?

10/10