THIS new version of the classic tale of madness in a lighthouse is also a classic case of style over substance.
In 1890s Nova Scotia, weathered sea captain Thomas Wake (Willem Dafoe) and the reticent Ephraim Winslow (Robert Pattinson) are stationed on a rocky island lighthouse for four weeks.
Wake is used to being in charge and Winslow soon becomes resentful of the menial backbreaking tasks he is given and wonders why Wake refuses to allow him into the top of the lighthouse.
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READ NOWWhen a vicious storm hits and the boat meant to take Winslow back to the mainland never comes, he succumbs to Wake’s offering of alcohol and spirals into madness.
With black and white cinematography and a tight square aspect ratio, The Lighthouse viscerally evokes the claustrophobia of this bleak unforgiving environment.
The characters’ cyclical relationship sees them go from drinking buddies to violent enemies several times over the course of the film which becomes repetitive and predictable.
Their increasingly strange and abhorrent acts of debauchery and violence towards themselves and each other feel performative without any significant meaning other than the obvious, that when men are left alone they lose any sense of humanity.
The Lighthouse has all the trappings of an experimental film, attempting to shock and disturb without any good reason for it.
The Lighthouse (MA)
Director: Robert Eggers
Starring: Willem Dafoe, Robert Pattinson
Two stars
Now showing