In my neck of the woods, we’re going full throttle into the rainy season, which means I’m fully ready for an ol’ sea-side yarn featuring some salty dogs and intense conversations over what I assume are bottles of pure gasoline. The movie THE LIGHTHOUSE fits that description, and in the second trailer for the acclaimed new film from Robert Eggers (THE WITCH) we see stars Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattinson getting drunk during a storm and building the tension between each other via a battle of words. Actually, it’s more like a battle of one word, and that word is…”What?”
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Shorter than the debut trailer, this new one shows off more of the glowing reviews as it makes its way through the festival circuit (read our own Chris Bumbray’s review here). The twisted dynamic between Dafoe and Pattinson’s characters is a central focus here, as is the alluring, dark atmosphere. Starting off with an ominous hint at the fate of one of the previous lighthouse keepers, Thomas Wake, who somehow went, “mad.” We then get a series of bizarre imagery that has some fantastical twists, like the glimpses at octopus tentacles slithering around. This has become one of the most-talked-about movies of the season, and you really don’t need any more reason to see it other than to see these two men screaming “What?!” at each other for, well, however long it lasts.
As for his reaction, Bumbray concluded that “THE LIGHTHOUSE will not be for everyone, with the emphasis on arthouse over horror. If you’re willing to have a little patience though, you’ll be rewarded with a deeply unsettling tale of madness, which boasts some truly impressive imagery and two pretty perfect performances.”
THE LIGHTHOUSE is in theaters October 18.