THE LIGHTHOUSE
****
Dir: Robert Eggers (15, 95 mins)
The director of The Witch returns with another terrifying tale set in a 19th-century lighthouse filmed in atmospheric black and white. Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattinson star as Thomas Wake and Ephraim Winslow – taciturn men who spend four weeks in a remote lighthouse on the coast of Maine. Dafoe is an ageing experienced seaman tasked with looking after the light itself, while Pattinson’s the dogsbody. They form a fractious double act: a secretive, quarreling father and son who grate against each other hilariously but could also end up murdering each other. Dafoe’s previous partner went mad, Pattinson is plagued by troubling erotic visions of a mermaid, and both are possibly at the mercy of supernatural forces. Expertly written, starkly photographed and mesmerisingly acted, The Lighthouse is a psychological horror that rattles you with its ambiguities. Dafoe and Pattinson relish their roles, spitting out mariner dialogue with melodramatic venom, running the full gamut of emotion from boredom and loneliness to hysterical rage and terror. Intelligent arthouse horror and proof that Eggers is a major talent to watch.
Opens Jan 31
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