THE LIGHTHOUSE and Its Horror Isolation
The Lighthouse is a film by Robert Eggers which was released in late 2019 and is also his second film, after The Witch or as The VVitch is often written which was released in 2015. If you have ever watched The Witch , you know that The Lighthouse will not be.common horror film.
Robert Pattinson and Willem Dafoe play two lighthouse keepers on a remote island in the 19th century, far from anywhere. The weather, which was always fierce with endless storms and rain, the poor condition of the lighthouse itself, and its quite unpleasant location were a mental test for the two guards.
Robert Pattinson plays the new lighthouse keeper, named Ephraim Winslow. Assigned together with an old guard named Thomas Wake, played by Willem Dafoe, the two are assigned to keep the lighthouse working for the next four weeks. Unknown to Ephraim, the lighthouse contained something that had made the previous guard fall insane and die.
Increasingly Ephraim began to feel the pressure of isolation in the middle of nowhere. Not only the location eroded Ephraim's mentality, but also how Thomas treated him very hard which made Ephraim lose his mind even more. That all, coupled with various mystical events that happened to him made Ephraim have to defend himself on that cursed island.
For less than two hours the film had only two actors, Robert Pattinson and Willem Dafoe. Even so, these two actors are more than capable of bringing the film beyond the boundaries that horror films never touch . These two actors carried The Lighthouse from start to finish, accompanying it with eccentric demeanor and extraordinarily flashy behavior.
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Robert Pattinson is the kind of actor who, if pushed, will showcase phenomenal acting. In recent years he has played several very interesting and different characters, whether his character is the big brother and the robber in Good Time , the boss of a company at Cosmopolis or the father and exile criminal in High Life .
Here, he plays a young guard who tries to maintain his senses but fails. What makes her acting stand out is that she portrays this character in a vulgar and savage manner but there are also times when she appears frightened and anxious. Eskperi's face, complete with his iconic mustache, which alternates wildly perfectly illustrates how crazy the world of The Lighthouse is . It would not be crazy if I said that his role as Ephraim might be Robert Pattinson's best acting as well as telling the world that he is the best actor at this time.
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If Pattinson plays a young guard who is confused by what happened on the mysterious island, it is different from Willem Dafoe who plays a colleague who has worked at the lighthouse for a long time. Thomas Wake is a grumpy, grumpy, old man who uses very elusive old English ( Chirk , hark , doldrums , those are all very foreign words), and is also mysterious. He is very protective of the lights above the lighthouse, forbidding anyone to enter because only he can.
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Willem Dafoe also gave his best acting in this film, where he was able to play an old lighthouse keeper who may have mystical powers. How he acts like an old man who seems senile in one scene, and acts as an explosive man in the next scene shows Willem's talent that can raise or lower the tension in a scene. He also gave a long and complicated monologue for two minutes without stopping and flickering which also became one of the tense scenes this year.
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Ephraim, who was always curious about the contents of the lamp, often got into an argument with Thomas who stubbornly forbade it. The behavior of the two of them often causes humor that is quite strange but it hit the spot, such as how Thomas suddenly screamed wanting to eat steak in one of the best screams in this film. The dark humor that comes from nowhere makes this film even more unpredictable, and this is what makes The Lighthouse the best horror film I've ever watched.
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The quirks and twists and turns of The Lighthouse are quite tall and complex, so that the audience can hardly figure out what is really going on, coupled with the mixed scenes of dream and reality that make it much more difficult to understand, and that's actually how beautiful The Lighthouse is . How this film stirs up Ephraim's fantasy that is getting more and more chaotic with the harshness of the original world, coupled with Thomas's always suspicious behavior with the light at the top of the lighthouse making this film a work of abstract art that is both very beautiful and fun and creepy to see.
And of course what makes this film even more mysterious is how Robert Eggers decided to make this film in black and white with a box format (1.19: 1 aspect ratio ). With that mysterious, creepy, ferocious impression from every side of the film, the easier it is to catch because of how unusual we are to see films in this form. The black and white color as well as the square shape also emphasizes the old school impression this film has.
Another thing that is special about The Lighthouse and I enjoy doing is how Robert Eggers tells his story. He refuses to openly tell what really happened and instead gives us fragments of scenes between fantasy and true story. We immediately felt Ephraim's anxiety and confusion over what had really happened and were curious about what was actually in the light at the top of the lighthouse? What made Thomas insist on forbidding Ephraim from looking into it?
In essence, The Lighthouse story is a bad experience to live with a quarrelsome and isolated roommate on a remote island. Here's a story of how one would react if one had to over the next four weeks work with an old, superstitious old man who was obsessed with lighthouse light and grumbled a lot. How can an isolation that is always accompanied by the sound of the waves, a strong storm and the sound of a fog whistle can cause someone to fall insane.
The curiosity and confusion I feel during the film is a very unique horror experience , and I would say right now that The Lighthouse is one of the best films of 2019 and of course the best horror film I've ever watched. Its unique language, dark colors, wild characters, unpredictable story, The Lighthouse is an experience that is both creepy and tense.