There’s something spooky about the sea. Writers from Homer to Hemingway have known how it drives people mad, and writer-director Robert Eggers has created a maritime psychodrama to make your skin crawl. A treasure trove of filmmaking techniques, including striking black and white cinematography and a pulsating score, help make The Lighthouse as entertaining as it is disturbing.
Two men, played by Robert Pattinson and Willem Dafoe, are sent to watch over an isolated lighthouse off the coast of 19th century New England. Dafoe’s Thomas Wake, the senior of the two, is the archetypal “old man of the sea”: he seems to have stepped straight from the pages of Moby Dick, down to the wooden leg and pipe perpetually hanging out of his mouth. Efraim Winslow, played by Pattinson, is just looking to earn a living, having abandoned a logging job in Canada. “Wickies” make good money, he heard. Unfortunately, Efraim must put up with almost constant admonishment from his fellow lighthouse keeper; when Thomas isn’t berating Efraim for improperly carrying out his duties, he rambles about his old life on the waves and barks about how it’s bad luck to kill a seabird. Superstitious nonsense, surely?
Most frustratingly of all, Thomas insists that he alone tends to the light at the top of the tower. It’s hard to know what’s worse: this unfair rule, the back breaking labour, or Thomas’s constant farting, but being a wickie doesn’t seem like such a great gig anymore. With relief just days away, a storm closes in on the island, leaving the men stranded as the tension between them boils over.
The film becomes become increasingly surreal, as Efraim is afflicted by disturbing visions that would make Poseidon blush. It’s understandable for a man to get lonely when he only has seagulls for company, but these scenes will really make you look at The Little Mermaid differently. The stark black and white cinematography allows for some truly arresting images, as tentacles slither around corners and bodies are glimpsed beneath the waves. However, it remains ambiguous as to whether something supernatural is afoot, or if it’s all a deranged dream.
Comic absurdity continues to lurk beneath the surface, such as when a crate thought to contain rations is found to be full of alcohol – by this point the two men are already consuming enough booze to put Ernest Hemingway in a coma. One moment Thomas and Efraim are warmly sharing stories, and the next they’re ready to kill each other. As the dread builds, I couldn’t help but remember the Simpsons episode where Homer and Mr Burns become trapped under an avalanche together. Sirens and krakens may be scary, but there’s nothing more terrifying than losing one’s grip on reality, especially when the passage of time itself is becoming meaningless.
Pattinson and Dafoe are excellently cast. Their angular faces and deep-set eyes reveal a multitude of shadows in the film’s monochrome cinematography, allowing Eggers to show emotions with a simple change of lighting. It is often unclear who is going mad, or indeed who is the madder of the two. Dafoe gives plenty of theatrical heft. At once comic and threatening, Thomas is a man full of secrets, but it’s unclear just how dangerous he is. Pattinson continues his superb run of recent performances, presenting Efraim as a desperate but sympathetic character, pushed to the brink of sanity by his circumstances. A note of praise is also due for the terrific facial hair sported by both actors, surely deserving of an award of it’s own.
Cinematographer Jarin Blaschke’s sharp imagery shows how decrepit the environment is, with black ooze splattering from taps and dead seagulls floating in the cistern. Compared to this, the light itself seems impossibly pure, and for Efraim, tantalisingly out of reach. One begins to sense that none of this is going to end well, and the narrow aspect ratio feels claustrophobic. While the film is short on conventional jump scares, the dynamic score helps create some genuinely shocking moments.
Eggers throws in references to Greek myth, Shakespeare and H.P. Lovecraft, but one doesn’t get the sense of a deeper a meaning to be uncovered. Watching The Lighthouse is an experience, one designed to make you feel rather than think. “Enjoyable” seems the wrong word for a film that seems intent on pushing it’s audience to the brink of sanity, but losing your mind rarely feels this fun.
Mark It Zero 