The Lighthouse

The Lighthouse is a 2019 film directed and produced by Robert Eggers, who co-wrote the screenplay with his brother, Max Eggers. Set in the 1890s, it stars Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattinson as two lighthouse keepers who descend into madness when a storm strands them on the remote island where they are stationed. The genre has been debated; the film has been alternately described as a horror film, a psychological thriller, a survival film, and a character study.

Development began as Max's attempt to create a contemporary take on Edgar Allan Poe's unfinished story "The Light-House". Adapting the story proved difficult, so after Robert joined, the project evolved into a period horror-thriller with the Poe elements largely removed. Dafoe and Pattinson were cast in February 2018. Principal photography began in April around the Canadian province of Nova Scotia and lasted a total of 34 days in Leif Erikson Park in Cape Forchu, and inside a hangar at Yarmouth Airport. It was shot in black-and-white with a nearly square 1.19:1 aspect ratio.

The Lighthouse premiered at the 72nd Cannes Film Festival on May 19, 2019, and was theatrically released on October 18, 2019, by A24 in the United States. It grossed over $18 million against an $11 million budget and received critical acclaim, with praise for the direction and performances. It was nominated for Best Cinematography at the 92nd Academy Awards and 73rd British Academy Film Awards, in addition to numerous nominations and wins at other awards ceremonies.

In 1890s New England, Ephraim Winslow serves a contract job as a "wickie" (lighthouse keeper) for a month on a small isolated island off of the coast, under the supervision of the island's longtime keeper, Thomas Wake. In his quarters, Winslow discovers a small scrimshaw of a mermaid and keeps it in his jacket. Wake immediately proves to be very demanding, assigning Winslow increasingly taxing jobs such as emptying chamber pots, painting the lighthouse, and carrying heavy kerosene containers up the stairs, while forbidding him access to the lantern room. Winslow observes that every evening, Wake secretly ascends the lighthouse and disrobes before the light. During his stay on the island, Winslow begins to hallucinate sea monsters and logs floating in the sea, and masturbates to the mermaid on the scrimshaw. He also continues to observe Wake's strange ritual and is bothered by a one-eyed gull that Wake tells him not to kill, as he believes that gulls are reincarnated sailors and killing one would bring bad luck. One evening while dining, Wake reveals to Winslow that his previous wickie died after losing his sanity, while Winslow reveals that he is a former timberman from Maine seeking a new trade

The day before his scheduled departure, Winslow discovers a dead gull inside the cistern, bloodying its water. Winslow is attacked by the one-eyed gull and he brutally kills it in a fit of rage. The wind drastically changes direction and a violent storm hits the island. Winslow and Wake spend the night getting drunk, and the storm rages through the next morning, preventing the relief ferry meant to pick up Winslow from arriving. As Winslow empties the chamber pots, he notices a body washed up on the shore and discovers that it is a mermaid, which awakens and howls at him. He flees back to the cottage, where Wake informs him that the storm has spoiled their rations, and that new ones will not arrive for weeks. The pair unearth a crate at the lighthouse's base that supposedly contains reserve rations, but contains only bottles of gin. In the following days, as the storm continues to rage, Winslow and Wake drink most of the gin, alternating between moments of intimacy and hostility. One night, Winslow tries unsuccessfully to steal the lantern room keys from Wake as he sleeps and contemplates stabbing him. He later encounters a lobster trap containing the one-eyed head of Wake's previous wickie. Winslow confesses to Wake that his real name is Thomas Howard and that he assumed the identity of the real Ephraim Winslow, his foreman who died in an accident Howard purposely neglected to stop. Wake chases Howard down, accusing him of "spilling his beans" and destroys their only dory with an axe. Once incapacitated, however, Wake claims that it was Howard who chased him and destroyed the dory.

With no alcohol left, the two begin drinking a concoction of turpentine and honey, while the storm worsens and starts flooding the cottage. The next morning, Howard finds Wake's soiled logbook, in which Wake has criticized him as drunk and incompetent and recommended that he should be sacked without pay. The two men argue, and Howard attacks Wake while hallucinating the mermaid, the real Winslow, and Wake as a Proteus-like figure. Howard beats Wake into submission and takes him to the hole at the base of the lighthouse to bury him alive. Wake curses Howard as he is buried, wishing him a "Promethean fate." Howard takes the keys to the lantern room, but Wake frees himself and strikes Howard with the axe. Howard disarms Wake and kills him, ostensibly remorselessly, before ascending the lighthouse. In the lantern room, the Fresnel lens opens to Howard, who reaches in and violently screams in distortion before slipping and falling down the lighthouse steps. Sometime later, a barely-living Howard lies naked on the rocks with a damaged eye as a flock of gulls peck at his exposed bowels.

The Lighthouse stars Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattinson. They both separately approached Eggers to express their enthusiasm for The Witch and their desire to collaborate.Dafoe and Pattinson first met at a party, and Pattinson's participation was used as a selling point in pitches to Dafoe.Their signings were announced separately to the media in February 2018.Robert's initial film proposals with Dafoe were not fruitful.When they met in person to discuss The Lighthouse, the director was plainspoken in the conversation. Dafoe recalled, "There was no discussion. 'This is the way we're going to do this. My way or the highway.' That's very unusual, especially for a two-hander, for a director to say, 'This is the way I see it. Yes or no?'"

Pattinson and Eggers originally met to negotiate terms for an unrelated project. Pattinson was offered, and passed on portraying a Victorian socialite because he believed the role would fail to challenge his acting ability.[6] His next meeting with Robert took place once he finished reading The Lighthouse's completed script. During the conversation, Pattinson showed Robert a clip of an intoxicated man screaming "I am a demon" to convey this understanding of the director's vision.

To prepare for their respective roles, each actor employed different techniques at the rehearsals. Dafoe was spontaneous in his performance, citing his theater background with the experimental troupe The Wooster Group, whereas Pattinson planned his rehearsing from the discussion of the script.

The Lighthouse had its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival in the Directors' Fortnight section on May 19, 2019. It was also screened at the Toronto International Film Festival, and the Atlantic Film Festival in September 2019. The film was distributed by A24 in North America and by Focus Features internationally.It was released on October 18, 2019.