The Lighthouse (2019)
83%RT Audience Score: 72%
Awards & Nominations: Nominated for 1 Oscar
34 wins & 139 nominations total
A gripping story brilliantly filmed and led by a pair of powerhouse performances, The Lighthouse further establishes Robert Eggers as a filmmaker of exceptional talent
The Lighthouse is like being stuck in a haunted house with two drunk sailors who won’t stop arguing. It’s weird, it’s uncomfortable, and it’s definitely not for everyone. But if you’re into that kind of thing, it’s a wild ride. The black and white cinematography is stunning, and Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattinson give performances that are both hilarious and terrifying. Just don’t expect to leave the theater feeling good about humanity.
Production Company(ies)
Film Nation Entertainment, Nostromo Pictures, Temple Hill Entertainment,
Distributor
A24
Release Type
Streaming, Theatrical, Theatrical (Limited)
Filming Location(s)
Cape Forchu, Nova Scotia, Canada
MPAA / Certificate
Rated R for sexual content, nudity, violence, disturbing images, and some language
Year of Release
2019
-
Color:Color
Black and White -
Sound mix:DTS Dolby Digital
-
Aspect ratio:1.19 : 1
-
Runtime:1h 50m
-
Language(s):English
-
Country of origin:United States
-
Release date:Release Date (Theaters): Oct 25, 2019 Wide
Release Date (Streaming): Oct 18, 2019
Genre(s)
Drama
Keyword(s)
starring Robert Pattinson, Willem Dafoe, Valeriia Karaman, Logan Hawkes, Shaun R Clarke, Kyla Nicolle, directed by Robert Eggers, written by Robert Eggers, Max Eggers, drama, box office performance, budget, reviewed by Wenlei Ma, David Stratton, Larushka Ivan-Zadeh, Sandra Hall, Simran Hans, Pablo O Scholz, Fernando E Juan Lima, Cole Smithey, Brian Eggert, Steve Crum, R rating, nudity, disturbing images, sexual content, some language, violence, produced by Jay Van Hoy, Lourenço Sant’ Anna, Youree Henley, Rodrigo Teixeira, lighthouse keepers, New England island, 1890s
Worldwide gross: $18,178,770
Worldwide gross (inflation-adjusted): $21,004,742
Worldwide gross ranking (inflation-adjusted): 1,697
Worldwide tickets sold (est.): 2,290,593
US/Canada gross: $10,867,104
US/Canada gross (inflation-adjusted): $12,556,445
US/Canada gross ranking (inflation-adjusted): 1,550
US/Canada opening weekend: $427,797
US/Canada opening weekend (inflation-adjusted): $494,300
US/Canada opening weekend ranking (inflation-adjusted): 1,409
Budget and Earnings Details
Production budget (est.): $11,000,000
Production budget (inflation-adjusted): $12,710,000
Production budget ranking: 1,570
Marketing and distribution budget (inflation-adjusted est.): $6,844,335
Box office net earnings to date (inflation-adjusted est.): $1,450,407
ROI to date (est.): 7%
ROI ranking: 1,362
Willem Dafoe – Thomas Wake
Valeriia Karaman – Mermaid
Logan Hawkes – Ephraim Winslow
Shaun R. Clarke – Departing Wickie
Kyla Nicolle – Woman on the Rocks
Director(s)
Robert Eggers
Writer(s)
Robert Eggers, Max Eggers
Producer(s)
Jay Van Hoy, Lourenço Sant’ Anna, Youree Henley, Rodrigo Teixeira
Film Festivals
Cannes, Toronto
Awards & Nominations
Nominated for 1 Oscar
34 wins & 139 nominations total
Academy Awards
Oscar Nominees
All Critics (387) | Top Critics (69) | Fresh (348) | Rotten (39)
The Lighthouse may be challenging, it may even be off-putting, but it’s gutsy, accomplished and the kind of movie that sears into your memory.
February 28, 2020 | Rating: 4/5
Wenlei Ma
News.com.au
TOP CRITIC
The atmosphere is ugly, claustrophobic, hermetic, the images murky and relentless. There seems no doubt Eggers is an original and talented filmmaker, but he hasn’t made it easy on the audience with this grim, forbidding movie.
February 11, 2020 | Rating: 3/5
David Stratton
The Australian
TOP CRITIC
As with The Witch, it’s the atmosphere that seeps into you like sea brine. You don’t watch this film, you are submerged in it. Expect to be spat out, reeling, from the cinema, clutching on to your sanity.
February 5, 2020 | Rating: 5/5
Larushka Ivan-Zadeh
Metro Newspaper (UK)
TOP CRITIC
American writer-director Robert Eggers excels at transporting you into the past and putting you under the skin of those you meet there. Persuading you to be glad that you came is another matter.
February 5, 2020 | Rating: 3/5
Sandra Hall
Sydney Morning Herald
TOP CRITIC
The lewd, overwrought, Herman Melville-inspired dialogue is alternately mumbled and shouted, the intense, grand guignol performances more interesting as an experiment than conducive to eliciting meaning.
February 2, 2020 | Rating: 2/5
Simran Hans
Observer (UK)
TOP CRITIC
The Lighthouse is a pressure-cooker.
January 31, 2020 | Rating: 4/5
David Sexton
London Evening Standard
TOP CRITIC
The images are between beautiful and overwhelming, and the performances, the counterpoints between Dafoe and Pattinson, whether or not they are drunk, supreme. [Full review in Spanish]
May 24, 2022
Pablo O. Scholz
Clarín
Eggers has watched with interest the first films of Guy Maddin and surely also something by the Quay Brothers. [Full review in Spanish]
May 23, 2022 | Rating: 8/10
Fernando E. Juan Lima
EscribiendoCine
A stone-cold masterpiece.
March 15, 2022 | Rating: A+
Cole Smithey
ColeSmithey.com
Robert Eggers has established himself as cinema’s premier researcher, capable of evoking a historical period with centuries-old vernaculars, period-accurate tactile details, and a visual schema rooted in the past.
February 23, 2022 | Rating: 3/4
Brian Eggert
Deep Focus Review
This psychological horror drama is jammed with nightmarish imagery and tour de force acting.
February 13, 2022 | Rating: A-
Steve Crum
Crum on Showbiz
Episode 52: Jojo Rabbit / The Lighthouse / Parasite
December 1, 2021 | Rating: 80/100
Taylor Baker
Drink in the Movies…
Plot
As the wavering cry of the foghorn fills the air, the taciturn former lumberjack, Ephraim Winslow, and the grizzled lighthouse keeper, Thomas Wake, set foot in a secluded and perpetually grey islet off the coast of late-19th-century New England. For the following four weeks of back-breaking work and unfavourable conditions, the tight-lipped men will have no one else for company except for each other, forced to endure irritating idiosyncrasies, bottled-up resentment, and burgeoning hatred. Then, amid bad omens, a furious and unending squall maroons the pale beacon’s keepers in the already inhospitable volcanic rock, paving the way for a prolonged period of feral hunger; excruciating agony; manic isolation, and horrible booze-addled visions. Now, the eerie stranglehold of insanity tightens. Is there an escape from the wall-less prison of the mind?
Trivia
Goofs / Tidbits
The Lighthouse features “stellar performances” from Robert Pattinson and Willem Dafoe.
Robert-Eggers.jpg
