The Lighthouse

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This movie is nearly 146 minutes of nothing happening until the last five or so of them aside from brief uncomfortable and surreal dream sequences and I spent almost the entire time unsettled and filled with a sense of dread.

I basically knew very little about this movie going into it other than that it was entirely in black and white, it was about two men on a lighthouse going crazy, and that there was some kind of mermaid. I have no idea how much of what happened was real and how much of it was in the main character's head. I have no idea how much of what happened was things that Pattinson's character "Ephraim" actually did or how much of it was him being delusional. It could go either way. Was Thomas trying to gaslight Ephraim by destroying the life boat and chasing him around with the axe, or was he right, and Ephraim did it? I have no idea. In fact it begs the question of whether Ephraim did or didn't actually kill the real Ephraim Winslow or if it really was an accident that haunts him. Because the nightmares he had while jerking off certainly seemed to imply he killed the man himself. The visions of floating logs that heralded the mermaid's first appearance imply guilt over something more active. And he was certainly violent enough to brutally beat a seagull to death in a legitimately uncomfortable and startling scene. There's one for Does The Dog Die. Ephraim accuses Thomas of killing the previous second, but I'm not even sure if Ephraim really did find the head of the man or not.

The decision to film entirely in black and white is certainly something. That I was expecting, but even though I'd seen screenshots and memes, I didn't realize that the aspect ratio was practically 1:1. It gives the movie a claustrophobic feel. A feel that's aided by the way that Pattinson especially seems to hunch his shoulders and bow his head in some scenes, as if the confines of the frame are a tangible thing for Ephraim. Even in many long shots both Ephraim and Thomas will be hunched over, especially at the dinner table. It adds to the uncomfortable feel.

Again, the bulk of this movie absolutely nothing happens. Long parts of it go by without much dialogue, but there is a tension. The whole thing feels like nights when you're young and the last one asleep and you're laying on the couch in front of the window and you're distinctly aware that the curtains are open and if you got up from the couch, anyone would be able to see you but you wouldn't be able to see them, and for the last two hours you thought it was a good idea to watch a History Channel documentary about Hell or something. Yeah, you know demons or serial killers probably aren't outside your window. But what if they are?

And then it's punctuated by a fucking hallucination of a mermaid or an ornery seagull, or a scene of masturbation that ends in the flash of a Lovecraftian tentacle. And then the main characters start drinking and things get even worse for them.

I can't tell what I'm supposed to feel. I don't know what the movie wants me to think. I don't know if Thomas is a manipulative old piece of shit or if Ephraim is a lazy lying murderer. Or if Thomas is a murderer. Or if there really is a siren driving them mad with a scrimshaw talisman. Or if the souls of men who died on the ocean live on in sea birds. I don't know how a ton of dead gulls ended up in the cistern or what horrible thing within the lantern drove three men or more to madness.

I don't know why this movie took a turn into pet play.

I honestly expected to be bored and confused and unable to enjoy this because I'm too dumb and ADHD brained.

This was a fucked up movie.

I was riveted.

I don't think I'll ever watch it again.