The Lighthouse

Released 18th October 2019, The Lighthouse is a film centred around two sailors isolated on a lighthouse island. Right out of the gate this film relies on only two actual characters; a decision which really enables the time to be spent of these complex characters. Robert Pattinson and Willem Dafoe are absolutely phenomenal in depicting differing forms of madness. Dafoe being a chaotic neutral sort of character; he’s crazy but he is better at composing himself and keeping his crazes subdued. Meanwhile Pattinson embodies a chaotic evil outlook with unforgiving and superiority, as the protagonist of the film, we see a more thorough insight into the different aspects of life he misses.

At its core, the film is a depiction of madness and the sanity of humankind. We see Pattinson’s Thomas Howard struggle with lust, leisure, rest, rationing and rage at frequent points, constantly escalating through the narrative with grotesque imagery and discomforting scenarios. It is the soundtrack from Mark Korven and the sound mixing by Damian Volpe however that elevates the film from a gritty drama to a full-fledged horror. The penultimate scene is perhaps the most disturbing form of art I have ever bore witness to and it is burnt into my mind, in a good way. That’s the brilliance of this film, the writing doesn’t throw in cheap jump scares for horror, it utilises every aspect of the filmmaking process to craft a semantic field of purgatory.

To quote Jon Kitlet of Discover the Horror: “it really creates different moods while listening to it. There are some tracks that sound like there are muffled voices or moans coming out of the speaker” The choice to utilise a classic 1.19:1 aspect ratio is also very inspired in establishing the story as an old one which could be better applied to other time periods where the colours in life are sucked out leaving just black and white. Overall, The Lighthouse is a simple story told with so many ideas, strong writing, stellar performances and technical prowess that it will be a film for the ages.