The Lighthouse (2019)

Cast includes:
CHARACTER	ACTOR/ACTRESS	RATING
Thomas Howard/Ephraim Winslow	Robert Pattinson	½
Thomas Wake	Willem Dafoe

Review

Gloom down, leave your modern, insignificant worries behind and join Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattinson for this harrowing time capsule of a movie created by the promising Canadian filmmaker Robert Eggers. Not only does The Lighthouse transport you back to the 19th century in remarkably impressive fashion, in everything from the authentic-sounding jargon to the mindset of these characters and the way they are realized. But it is also a time travel filmatically speaking; you feel like you're watching a work by German Expressionists circa 1920. When Pattinson walks towards the ocean for the first time after arriving at the lighthouse, the homage to films such as Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari and Nosferatu is obvious and tasteful. (Come to think of it, Pattinson also resembles Conrad Veidt, and Dafoe is like Emil Jannings from Der Letzte Mann.)

In the history of horror movies, we usually must expect quite a time span between each time a filmmaker comes along who can create pure, timeless horror based on imagery and thematics rather than jump-scares and conventions. The Lighthouse is an example of the former, and for that I salute it and Mr. Eggers. The film is so evocative that it sucks you into its peculiar world and doesn't let go until you've been battered like that gull. And in the grip of two brilliant thespians throwing themselves into this material, you feel alternately impressed, disgusted and unnerved. Classy black-and-white cinematography by Jarin Blaschke and an amazingly powerful musical score by Mark Korven put the icing on this almost inedible but constantly enthralling cake.