One of the very first shots in The Lighthouse, the new horror movie directed by Robert Eggers (The Witch), reveals a theme of the entire film. We’re in the 1890s somewhere off the coast of New England and a lighthouse keeper (played by Robert Pattinson) is dropped off on a jagged rock to take his post. He watches the ship that he was just on recede into the distance. Then, the ship gently vanishes like a ghost. Or did it just fade into the distance?
This uncertainty about what is real and what is not is the theme of The Lighthouse. The film could be a tale of a man slowly going crazy, or it could be an old New England nautical folk tale about the inscrutability and danger of the sea, or it could be a clever story that brings together a god and a man from ancient Greek mythology.
Read Full Article »