[rating=10.00]
It’s been almost four years since I first saw The Witch, writer/director Robert Eggers’ feature debut, and in that time I haven’t stopped thinking about it. It remains one of the most stunning and affecting cinematic debuts in decades and still to this day represents a new high point for the horror genre. It was so good, in fact, that following it up felt like too impossible a task. How do you surpass a bar that you’ve already set at the sky?
Somehow, Eggers managed it with his sophomore effort, The Lighthouse. Quite simply one of the very finest films I have ever seen, Eggers has proven himself a filmmaker of singular vision, astounding focus, and superb instincts. Any inkling one might have had that The Witch was a fluke or some stroke of beginner’s luck can rest easy. The Lighthouse proves that Eggers is indeed one of the greatest directors working today.
Mere words can neither do justice to nor convey the monumental achievement of The Lighthouse, a film that defies all conventions of the cinematic form and the genres in which it plays. It is a captivating, horrific piece of filmmaking that is alternately beautiful, hilarious, and terrifying. I’ve never seen anything quite like it, and I doubt I ever will again.
Eggers mines the same isolating field in which he played in The Witch, exploring the horrifying effects of solitude and societal separation on the human soul. Instead of a Puritan family, however, this time he takes us to coastal New England in the 1890s, where two remote lighthouse keepers are forced to endure the pains of each other’s company for several gut-wrenching weeks.
Ephraim Winslow (Robert Pattinson) is on the island for the first time, having just gotten the job. With him is the seasoned keeper, Thomas Wake (Willem Dafoe). The two couldn’t be more different; Ephraim is green and eager to forge a new life after a mystery surrounding his previous employment. Thomas is a salty sea-dog, used to the isolating freedom of lighthouse keeping and life at sea.
From this simple premise, Eggers builds a stunning meditation on humanity and psychosis. Nothing you see or hear while watching The Lighthouse can be fully trusted; stories change and information shifts like the ebbs and flows of the tide. It’s off-putting, to say the least, and more than once Eggers blindsides you with a sudden new direction that will keep you wondering throughout the film.
Compounding this is Eggers’ choice to film the movie in 1.19:1 aspect ratio. There’s an undeniably claustrophobic effect watching the film play out in a tiny square on the movie screen. One can’t help but wonder what exists just outside the line of vision and the longer the movie goes on the more restrained one feels by the movie and its increasingly maddening events.
Pattinson and Dafoe each give what might be the best performances of their careers, which is saying a lot on both their accounts. Dafoe, of course, is no stranger to brilliant performances but what he creates here is truly staggering. He at one point delivers a crazed, ranting monologue that surpasses everything he’s ever achieved in his storied career. Pattinson, for his part, proves that he’s one of the more interesting young actors working today.
The two play off and against each other in brilliant, fascinating ways, breathing an incredible life to Eggers’ period-accurate dialogue. They are each at times Shakespearean in their performances, pulling nuance and subtlety out of the tiniest moments that build into a tidal wave of terror that will sweep you out into the seas of madness.
There’s nothing that can prepare you for the terrifying psychological journey Eggers leads you down and, quite frankly, nothing should. The less you know about The Lighthouse going into it the better. The twists, turns, shocks, and frights are truly more effective without any pre-context. Even after, you’ll find yourself unable to turn your back completely from the horrific truth, which will burrow its way deep into your subconscious and make itself at home. It is, simply put, the best film this year.
The Lighthouse is now playing in select theaters.
