An ill wind buffets this grim tale in a lighthouse
The Lighthouse (15) Verdict: Relentlessly bleak
ANYONE who saw The Vanishing, an absorbing 2018 thriller set in 1900 on a remote Hebridean island, and based on a true story about three Scottish lighthouse- keepers who disappeared, will be powerfully reminded of it by Robert Eggers’ psychological horror film The Lighthouse.
This one is a two-hander, shot in black-and-white and set off the coast of New England, but the period is about the same, and the storylines coalesce to a striking degree.
Peter Mullan’s bad-tempered keeper in The Vanishing and Willem Dafoe’s here are cut from exactly the same cloth. Both films even make the most of the venerable maritime superstition about dead seagulls bringing curses.
That all said, I admired The Vanishing yet found The Lighthouse nigh-on unwatchable. It has had extravagant critical praise after showing at various film festivals, and there’s no doubt that Eggers is a highly talented writer-director; his 2015 debut The Witch was unforgettably scary.
But this film, lots of comedy flatulence notwithstanding, is just unrelentingly grim.
A lavishly bearded Dafoe plays the senior keeper, Thomas, a miserable (and very windy) old sea dog who thinks nothing of bullying his younger colleague Ephraim, played by Robert Pattinson.
The narrative is fuelled entirely by their claustrophobic, see-sawing relationship, as resentment and hallucinatory stir-craziness build.
But despite the superb performances from both actors, cinematography that makes almost every frame look like an exquisitely lit monochrome photo, and conspicuous nods to Alfred Hitchcock, I didn’t enjoy a single minute of their company.