“THE LIGHTHOUSE” — 3 stars — Willem Dafoe, Robert Pattinson, Valeriia Karaman; R (sexual content, nudity, violence, disturbing images, and some language; in general release; running time: 109 minutes.
“The Lighthouse” is director Robert Eggers’ latest cinematic deep dive into madness and paranoia. It’s a well-crafted effort, but even among horror fans, it won’t be for everyone.
The story follows two men who get stationed on a remote North American lighthouse for a four-week tour. We mostly see the film from the perspective of Ephraim Winslow (Robert Pattinson), a rookie assistant who most recently worked in the logging industry, and seems to be carrying some demons from the experience.
The senior lighthouse operator is the grizzled and flatulent Thomas Wake (Willem Dafoe), a veteran taskmaster who quotes poetry and claims to be married to the light. The connection seems more than a little unhealthy, as the intensity at which he orders Ephraim around on chores is matched only by his refusal to ever let his assistant near the top of the lighthouse itself.
There’s an uneasy tension between the two men. From the start, Ephraim wrestles with nightmarish visions and hallucinations. It doesn’t help that Thomas tries to push him into breaking company rules and drinking on the job. “Boredom makes men to villains,” he warns the rookie. And if that weren’t bad enough, an ill-tempered seagull takes an immediate dislike to Ephraim and seems determined to hassle him in his work.
As the film rolls forward through dark, stormy nights and bright, lonesome days, we see the two men grapple with their inner demons and isolation as well as each other. A mysterious wooden mermaid carving channels sexual frustrations and disturbing fantasies for Ephraim, and Thomas’s behavior up in the lighthouse on his late night watches becomes increasingly suspicious, driving his young assistant more and more to understand the allure of the luminescent beacon.
It isn’t all that hard to see where things are going, but “The Lighthouse” is more about the nightmare of the journey. Things progress from bad to worse, especially as alcohol gets involved. We follow Ephraim and Thomas on an increasingly surreal path to their ultimate confrontation.
The themes of paranoia, terror and isolation are similar to Eggers’ first film, 2015’s “The Witch,” which followed the story of a Puritan-era family on the outskirts of New World civilization. The most common complaint of that film was the lack of traditional horror beats (translation: “nothing happens”). For horror audiences looking for jump scares or slasher-style killings, “The Lighthouse” will leave you similarly dissatisfied.
Like “The Witch,” “The Lighthouse” is a work of atmosphere, using stark visuals — in this case, black and white imagery shot at an unusual square aspect ratio — and a scant soundtrack to build an unsettling atmosphere of dread. The narrative is more oblique this time around, but Eggers is still mining the same pit.
There’s a lot of disturbing imagery as well, which combines with some suggestive and surreal sexual content — plus some late violence — to draw the film’s R-rating. It isn’t exactly a hard R, but sensitive audiences should definitely steer clear.
“The Lighthouse” benefits from Eggers’ effort to build a saturating atmosphere, and while both performances are suitably bonkers, Dafoe especially channels the madness onscreen. The result has some clear merits, but lives far enough into the realm of indie art and cinematic metaphor to narrow its audience. Call it a slow burn or an acquired taste, “The Lighthouse” is certainly a unique horror film.
Rating explained: “The Lighthouse” is rated R for suggestive sexual content and flashes of nudity, as well as disturbing imagery, violence, and some scattered profanity.