"The Lighthouse" begins with a bleak and hopeful look at exploring unity and personal relationship, and studying the behavior and style of communication between the two protagonists, before it turns into horror. The film gradually changes in the tone of anxiety that has dominated it from the middle to the end, and employs a shaky view between paranoia (phobia) and the preponderance of the mind, especially when it reaches a gray area for the viewer in relation to truth and illusion.
If the previous paragraph was incomprehensible, this is normal, because it describes the film from a psychological point of view.
Director Robert Eggers (directed by Witch 2016), and desirous of embedding some of the realism in the film, has been studying the workings of 19th-century beacons in the New England region of the United States, and how to live in them before he begins writing the text.
Eggers shot the film in black and white in a successful artistic decision, and used the famous 1.19: 1 frame of the 1930s horror films. It is well known that the films of that period were particularly affected by the expressive movement that crept into Hollywood from the German horror cinema.
The content of the movie does not match the content of the horror films of the 1930s (especially the Mermaid Scene), but the style in itself makes the movie fit for viewing at any time. And of course the film excels in the features of its time, as it makes the best use of sound technologies, whether we hear the buzzing of a lighthouse similar to the sound of a giant terrifying horn, or the sounds of birds.
The story is partly adapted from a true fact in 1801, known as the tragic lighthouse of Smalles, which was told in the 2016 Chris Crew movie entitled This same movie. But Eggers leaves the historical accuracy and chronology of the events that occurred between two guards stuck inside a beacon due to bad weather, and uses the incident as a starting point only for a psychological horror story.
Despite the similarities between the two films in terms of location, and the atmosphere of Clostervobia (fear of confined spaces), the two films are surprisingly different entities, and it is not fair to say that Lighthouse 2019 is a repeat of the lighthouse of 2016.
The two keepers in the story, the old jealous Thomas Wake (Willem Dafoe) jealous who guards the entrance to the lighthouse and does not allow anyone to enter, and the young Ephrem Winslow (Robert Pattinson). Dafo speaks with a dialect of sailors and the outlets of his letters are not clear, and his words are like stuffing full of unnecessary details, with these characteristics Dafo emerges as an arrogant personality that imposes itself, and its human features only emerge when it is excessive in drinking. Winslow on the opposite side, is silent and hates treating him negligently and does not talk about his past much. And when the indifference between them begins to turn into hate, a feeling is created that violence is inevitable, then the two drink too much and recognize each other, laugh out loud, dance and pretend to be good friends.
And when the day of departure comes, in conjunction with a raging storm with which it is impossible to sail in a boat, Winslow begins to lose what remains of his mind and strand toward madness ... or so things appear. In a movie that looks like a performance match, and although this is Patinson's strongest performance, Dafoe outperforms him, because in practice he gives two characters: Wake over his temper and Wake as Winslow sees him.
The Dafoe characters are closely intertwined, and sometimes we don't know which one appears. The film is told from Winslow's point of view, and whenever his mind abandons him, we cannot know if he sees it as a reflection of the truth or a hallucination. The strength of the lighthouse lies in the performance of its actors and the strength of their interaction, and the horror that consists of the middle of the movie and captures it to the end.
It's hard to imagine this movie in color, without focusing on lighting and shadows. Most of the time the footage we watch is deliberately dark. Although Eggers does not use natural light, it does make the footage look like he is using it, and he doesn’t let dim scenes light up to make them more clear.
Eggers focuses on bleak details like the little hut they share, the storm that does not stop at their exit from the hut, and the lack of a place to walk between the lighthouse and the hut because the ground is rocky, as well as the annoying seagulls, one of which stands, and has one eye, as if he had a grudge towards Winslow is not satisfied with being there.
In addition to using the aforementioned frame, Eggers, which is like a square on the wide screen, to crowd its characters in it, and consequently, increases the viewer’s feeling of awe and gloom in the narrow place.
If we address the sound details, we will notice that the sound of the lighthouse trumpet, which warns ships of the dangers lurking in front of them, never relaxes as if it was the sound of the sky, this sound is the cornerstone of the lighthouse movie, and without it the movie loses much of its momentum. The movie bears some traits of silent films (the dialogue starts at the seventh minute), in addition to the Winslow hallucination scenes that appear from a silent horror film, at the same time if we look at the way Eggers uses sound effects and music, it becomes clear to us that this film is more modern than horror films today. .
The last five minutes of the movie are the most terrifying, with Winslow completely mastering him, for his desire to explore a place in the lighthouse that Wake prevented him from entering. In general, the film accomplishes its goals by placing the viewer in an uncomfortable position, by showing details that manipulate or distract ideas.
The films of delinquency of the characters to madness are so many that they are stigmatized by the cliché, but the Eggers lighthouse renews this type and gives it a modern vision, despite employing an old style, and here comes the man's genius because the use of a classic vision gives the movie eternal momentum. The lighthouse is a captivating horror movie, but it is definitely not for the public, and even if its details are mysterious in many scenes, we do not mind watching similar films if they are at the same level.
• The film achieves its goals by placing the viewer in an uncomfortable position by presenting details that distort or distract ideas.
• The film is narrated from Winslow's point of view, and whenever his mind abandons him, we cannot know if he sees it as a reflection of the truth or a hallucination.
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