I believe that ‘The Lighthouse‘, the film directed by Robert Eggers, needs two sets of warnings. First of all, it’s a horror movie, so those who don’t like the genre would be better off avoiding it. For the enthusiasts, I think it is good that they be told that on one hand they may be disappointed with the rhythm, on the other hand certain elements of horror go beyond the limits of the genre. It is a psychological film, the tension builds up slowly and comes from the nature of the two characters that occupy the screen throughout the film, and it takes about half of the screening time until the truly frightening events start and unfold. By then, viewers risk being completely absorbed into the atmosphere, which might seem paradoxical for a film whose action takes place in the 19th century. The reason is, I think, that the horror of ‘The Lighthouse‘ comes from within, from the darkness of souls of the two heroes. These kinds of feelings have no historical specificity.
The film is inspired by a real historical case that happened on an island near the southwest coast of England in the late 18th century, a story that has already inspired another film with the same name in 2016, a BBC radio play, as well as documentary films. Robert Eggers moved the action a century later, and near the coast of New England. Two lighthouse keepers are sent to the island for a one-month tour of duty. Relations between the veteran played by Willem Dafoe and the disciple played by Robert Pattinson unfold slowly in the first part of the film. The tensions inherent in life in seclusion, the routine, the boredom, are the trivial bricks from which is built up the edifice of the conflict that bursts with the storm that will prevent the arrival of the exchange shift. There is also an ecological message in the film, about the conflict between humans and the nature symbolized by the seagulls that become as threatening as in Hitchcock‘s ‘The Birds‘. But are these real birds, or are they actually prisons of the souls of sailors lost in the storms, as the legends tell? And are the two men what they seem to be? Even from seemingly realistic scenes, before the movie slips into fantasy and nightmare, we understand that we are dealing with a game of identities. We also have here a Symbolist approach to the legend of Light whose brightness and warmth can kill the uninitiated who dare to get too close to its source.
It is fascinating to watch the dialogues between the two characters. There is a difference of rank and of social classes between them, which is reflected in the language. The veteran lighthouse keeper played by Dafoe speaks in parables and quotes, his language being that of Captain Ahab in ‘Moby Dick’. Pattinson‘s apprentice is mostly silent at first, then, when he seems to start to open his soul, does so in the slang of the lower classes, but it becomes clear that he builds an identity screen hiding terrible facts from past. In the end, words give way to images, and each of the characters gets to be seen through the eyes of the other or maybe even in the other’s nightmares. As the fog leaves place to the storm, the horror unleashes and overwhelms everything. The performances are terrifying, so is the soundtrack. Eggers’s cinematography uses black and white, and the screen format of classic films of the genre. It is a reverence for the horror masters of the past, of course, but the imaginary fantasy nightmare that dominates the final scenes far exceeds what the predecessors dared, and will accompany the spectators after the end of the film.