The Lighthouse

Robert Eggers’ debut feature THE WITCH seamlessly mixed folkloric horror with the story of America’s early settlers. His follow-up THE LIGHTHOUSE is no less hallucinatory. The setting shifts from woods plagued by evil spirits to the wind-stricken, sirenhaunted oceanside. Lighthouse caretaker Thomas receives a young assistant named Ephraim. He is thrown off by Thomas’s gruffness and brutality, but becomes increasingly engrossed in the mysteries surrounding the lighthouse itself, suspecting demonic foul play.
Dafoe and Pattison form a drunken, riotous, tour-de-force duo. The antiquated English they both speak helps elevate their roles to mythic Melville heights. Cinematographer Jarin Blaschke captures the claustrophobic, daydream world in crisp, contrast-rich black-and-white, and with dramatic, vertiginous angles. As in Eggers’ previous film, the drama primarily lies in the collapse between internal and external worlds. When these collide, and the lighthouse’s dangerous charms take effect, Ephraim plunges into despair, between a reckless struggle to wrangle authority from his Ahab-like boss and the need to preserve a sliver of his own sanity. The complex sound design further blurs the lines – a plunge into the unknown, exhilarating yet frightful. (Ela Bittencourt)