If one can believe it, The Lighthouse, one of the most dynamic, artful and disturbing movies of 2019, has its roots in the truth. The story of two lighthouse keeps succumbing to madness and murder has its roots in the true tale of two Welsh keepers who did much the same in 1801. This was the inspiration of co-writer Max Eggers who turned for help to his up and coming director brother Robert Eggers to finish his script. What came of this union was a far better product than what came of the pairing in the lighthouse of 1801, for we ended up with one of the best films of 2019 and one that for me gets better on every single repeat viewing. The journey that The Lighthouse takes, into the deep and dark heart of solitude and madness indeed, is one that filmicly I feel will stand the test of time and certainly deserves the title of ‘modern classic’.

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Set in 1890 on a lighthouse with two wickie’s (lighthouse keepers) played by Robert Pattinson and Willem Dafoe, in two career best performances, The Lighthouse is truly one of the great cinematic depictions of a descent into madness of all time, earning that place almost immediately with great love and respect from critics and any audiences alike. Fresh from the similarly immensely successful The Witch, Robert Eggers has more than solidified himself as an auteur to keep ones eye on. Although I usually have what I call a “rule of three rule”, waiting for the third feature from any promising director with two films I like under their belts – I really am willing to deaclare Eggers a modern master, due to the sheer craft and stupendous genius (yes, I said genius) of his two first films. To get the feel of 1890, eggers shot the film in a stark and beautiful black and white in a 1.19:1 ratio, using cameras from as early as 1918. The film was also shot under extreme weather conditions including, but desperately not limited to; extremely cold temperatures, freezing Atlantic water, intense winds and snow and fierce rain. This intensity of the natural world was incorporated into the film by Eggers, who stated that “the most crazy and dramatic stuff was shot for real” and put into the film. The struggles are real and are brilliantly brought to the screen, giving the film a tangible scariness in most of its grandest sequences. Aswell as a constant rising tension, obviously furthered and solidified by the rising tensions in the script and narrative. All in all the shoot was very taxing for the cast and crew. Pattinson and Defoe who hardly spoke during filming, due to the sheer levels of exhaustion, apparently grew to like each other a fair bit during the press tour. All of these factors just come together brilliantly to make the film the true tyrant that it is. Pattinson’s Winslow is a troublesome younger figure more so consumed by the drunkenness and madness that occurs, with Dafoe’s exceptional and incredibly Oscarless performance as Wake being a triumphant character filled with strength but eroded by years and years of solitude.

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The film is a piece that juxtaposes high art and craft with the most constant focus on human viscera that I have seen in recent memory. For aswell as evoking imagery and influence including Hypnosis from 1904 by Sascha Schneider, the film also focuses with an excruciatingly close lens upon semen, faeces, blood and vomit. Ranging from humorous effect, to disgust, even to beauty. Before then taking the same human elements and presenting them for a different effect. The film also takes great pains to place farts at almost every turn, placing very intentionally perhaps the cheapest of all jokes in the highest form of gothic art, even having “the gas” become a key plot element in a pivitol confrontation sequence. The film also takes many elements of Greek mythology and imbues them into the tapestry of the tale being told. Wake as Proteus, an elderly and prophetic god of the sea, named frequently as the “old man of the sea”. With Winslow representing a form of Prometheus, a trickster titan defying gods at every turn. The final image of the film even puts Winslow in the exact same fate as Prometheus, with seagulls rather than eagles. Even without the mythological analogies however the film has justified through dialogue and imagery the final frame that we are left with, leading to a whole meal no matter how much research you have encountered with. Eggers manipulates his characters into battles of wit, physicality and even mental torture and sexual stimulation and frustration. Battling with themselves and with others, before revealing subtlety that “themselves” and “others” may very well be one in the same.

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All the intense humour of the piece led Eggers to have many worries that the film would be seen as “too funny”, something that he later dealt with in post-production with the repeated use of the harrowing and dread-filled musical score of Mark Korven, which looms hauntingly and very loudly over much of the film, adding a real constant undertow of fear. But the film is still very, very funny, with Dafoe and Pattinson performing so absurdly, with such dynamic and humoursly period accurate dialogue that bouts of series laughter are conjured. I frankly think that it won’t be long before the film is garnered with the dark comedy reputations of many great films of the decade. Eggers comments on the fart jokes highlight this melding of humour and horror; “After making The Witch so miserable and self-serious, I thought if I was gonna explore misery again, I would wanna be able to laugh at it”. Misery and laughs are boundless here, a tremendous success of intention. One of Egger other major worries surround the narrative of the film. Eggers has commented that there were versions of the script that were “too clear”, removing much of the ambiguity and madness that forms the films presentation, structure and arcs. The elliptical nature and unknowable element of the film, which I actually don’t think is that hard to grasp worked against the film for me on a first watch, with me wanting just a touchy more clarity. However on a second watch I couldn’t be more thankful that any sort of clear exposition was given, with many of the films questions answering themselves in the ever enriching body of the text.

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“Nothing good can happen when two men are trapped alone in a giant phallus”. 

Robert Eggers’ simple summation puts everything into perspective about his film, placing it in the context of doom, psycho-sexuality and horror in one simple sentence, exemplifying once again his immense capability to craft a complete story in a few simple words. The Lighthouse is one of the funniest films of the year. The Lighthouse is one of the scariest films of the year. The Lighthouse is one of the disturbing films of the year. All of these things are true and more, The Lighthouse contains multitudes. Many, many deep and dark multitudes.

-          - Thomas Carruthers