The Lighthouse Review

Farts

This movie features a lot of farts. early and often. I really felt for poor Winslow, since I can empathize sitting across from a flatulator in a confined space.

There are a lot of confusing elements in this film by design. It’s hard to say whether some elements of the story are spoilers or not, given they are so open to interpretation.

Naked Lighthouse Keeping

One element of the story is that Winslow is very interested in usurping Wake in the coveted night watch in the lens room.

Winslow peeps on Wake at different times throughout the movie. Early on he sees Wake naked and drunk at the top of the tower. Wake is seemingly in love, or at the very least, enchanted with the lighthouse light.

Later Winslow is able to catch glimpses of Wake in the tower possibly having sex with a tentacled monster.

Bad Luck to Kill a Seabird

When Winslow complains about a meddling seagull, Wake informs him that “It’s bad luck to kill a seabird”.

Winslow doesn’t take Wake’s advice and is later shown violently killing the one-eyed seagull that keeps seemingly mocking him.

After the death of the bird, things do not go well for the pair. The wind changes and the boat that was supposed to relieve them couldn’t make landfall because of the poor weather. Winslow slowly goes crazy and the lighthouse itself starts coming apart at the seams.

One interpretation is that Winslow brought a curse upon himself by killing the seagull. However, it is just as likely that his hallucinations and violence are caused by his alcoholism. The change in their fates also coincided with Winslow starting to drink (immediately to excess).

It’s up for the audience to decide.

The Ending of The Lighthouse Explained

Winslow reveals to Wake that his real name is also Thomas and that he is responsible for the death of a lumberman that he used to work with. Winslow’s murderous side is revealed at the end of the movie when he violently attacks Wake and buries him alive.

He finally ascends the lighthouse tower to see what all the fuss is about. When we looks into the light, he is blinded and falls to his death on the rocks below. The final shot of the movie shows Winslow on the rocks with his entrails being eaten by seagulls.

Eggers has stated in interviews that the death was an allusion to the myth of Prometheus, the god that defied the other gods to give men light, and was condemned to live eternity tied to a rock and have an eagle eat his liver everyday.

This episode Brought to you by Crazy Tom’s Beard Oil. With so many trendy hipsters with beards, it’s getting harder and harder for a hobo like yourself to show people that you’re not to be fucked with. Well, with crazy Thomas Beard Oil you can keep. Your beard is disheveled as 17th century sailors taint. When people see your beard with crazy times beard oil, they’ll cross to the other side of the street before they can even hear you talk about the voices. That’s crazy. Tom’s beard Oil available wherever. Two. Buck, Chuck Isolde Hello and welcome to horror movie talk and opinionated and accidentally funny horror movie review Show your panel of experts. Hosts each week are Dr Bryce Hanson, who holds a phD in spookology, and Professor David Day, the foremost expert on scare No-nos. New theatrical releases get priority, but we also review older horror movies both good and horrible. I’m break dancing. Hey, I’m David. Who are you going? Okay, David Day, David Day. Not to be mistaken for, um, little play or big say more David Gay Professor David D ad junk. I should say adjunct Professor David Day because you work professionally outside of the university. In scare. No nose, right? Yeah, I have. I’d like to, um I’d like to showcase a little bit of my super sexy voice. All right, this is for uncomfortable. So thank you for listening into horror movie talk. If your first time listener just want to tell you a couple things to get you integrated into the cult of Holder movie talk, go to our website at horror movie talk dot com. There’s three words in there that are very easy to remember because you like horror movies and we’re talking about him and there you’ll find links to all our social media were on pretty much everything. I mean, we’re even on tic tac, and we have no business being on tic tac. No, I mean well, as voyeurs. I mean, uh, God damn look at those hot children that would really prefer what What I’ve learned from tic tac. 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Just star rating is not what we want. Price. I’ve been thinking about it. We really need to start appealing to listeners who run a back alley phone Resale racket. Yes, like like a like a pick pocketing racket. So, like, you know, like around the Eiffel Tower, there’s just people who just going to swipe your phone constantly. If we could get in touch with those people and just maybe sort of set up some sort of, uh, some sort of amicable thing that they give us reviews and we give them shekels. What are they looking for? Yeah, Frank’s little miniature Eiffel Towers T cell. All right, I know this madness. We’ve got a great show today. This is what happens when two men are left alone in a room for too long together. Yes. Today we’re gonna be talking about the lighthouse. We’ll start out by giving a brief review and our score for the film. We score on a scale of 1 to 10 1 being a miserable dredge when it makes you angry that you just watched it. Five being a perfectly average film that hits all the expected marks on 10. Being so good at transcends yonder bandage. I mean, you all know what one through 10 mean. After we give our score, we go into a deeper dive into what we liked and hated about the film and talk about spoilers. And then, later on, we will be doing a couple bits. Number one perennial favorite tag lines where we come up with alternate taglines for the film and then drum roll. We’re gonna announce the winner of our pumpkin carving contests are super super popular pumpkin carving. Actually, it turned out to be like there was a lot of last minute under the wire submission. Yeah, it was like the last day people were like, Fuck this shit I’m in, like, yeah, yeah, and actually, I’m gonna I’m leaving this leaving it on. I haven’t turned it up. So if within the next 20 minutes, as we’re recording not that everyone knows that we are, if someone submits, will will include them. And, I mean, it’s not so popular that we can’t review Every single pumpkin was on air, was it? Was it like, 10 or 11 pumpkin. Some, like there was 99 pumpkin, nine pumpkins. But some really impressive. Yeah. They range the gamut from total absolute abject shit to the most amazing pumpkins I’ve ever seen. So within nine is apparently that’s That’s the amount you need right to. That is a decent sample size to get a winner, right? So again, we went to the lighthouse and it was a descent into madness. Truly a descent into madness. Here is the trailer. Oh, take me. What’s a timber man want with being a wicky? Just looking around living. It’s like any man starting new on the way secrets, you know? Wait, How long have we been on this rock point? Weeks. Two days? Let me recollect. Man, That foghorn sounds like a kaiju. What, like a Godzilla type monster? Oh, yeah, it sure does. Yeah. You know, just before we go on, I am gonna have to apologize for my voice. I, uh I’m ill now. It sounds great. Sounds rough. And Hey, baby, humble rough and or tumble. Tell us about the lighthouse price. The lighthouse is in theaters right now. I’m pretty excited to talk about this movie. Yeah, this this one is a very interesting movie to talk about. Yeah, um it’s very specifically that Yeah, like that’s what this movie was made for. It is definitely a film student film. Yeah, and I mean film student in that film, students for a long time, we’re gonna be talking about this film. Oh, my God. There’s just me so many wet panties in that. So, in a sophomore film, Robert Eggers follows up The Witch with a romcom sent in Nova Scotia. William Dafoe plays an experienced sailor, and Robert Pattinson plays his young, simple protege in this Will they won’t they? Romantic drama. They fight happiness every step of the way until it finally wears them down. Finally wears them down. I spat out my teeth. Actually, the lighthouse is about to lighthouse keepers or weak ese that are stationed in remote Lighthouse. In New England, Willem Dafoe plays Thomas Wake, an elderly, salty seamen. And Robert Pattinson plays E from Winslow, a young man trying out a new career as Wake Domine ears over Winslow, forcing him to do all the hard labour of upkeep for the tattered lighthouse. He spends the coveted watch at night, basking naked in the warm glow of the lamp. Literal, yeah, basking naked. Yeah, that’s don’t worry about it. Winslow wants some of that sweet, naked, basking action, and he slowly descent into madness. So I’m glad you had fun with this. If you’re going into this film expecting another the witch, you’re going to be disappointed, Um, but disappointed that it’s not the same type of film and the witch it’s you know you won’t necessarily be disappointed in the film. No, but ifit’s a particular type of film, and it’s gonna turn off a lot of people for a lot of reasons. Yeah, for a lot of reasons in, You know, I said to you yesterday, and this holds true is you gotta like before we record You just gotta, like, scream and lose your voice because you sound just really radio right now. Beautiful. Yeah. Um, So I was disappointed that this movie wasn’t what I wanted it to be, which was another like, slow build tension horror movie. It’s not that it’s not, Ah, horror movie, and it just have slow build. Tension does have a lot attention, but it’s a different kind, right? And it’s about a different, totally different. The the build is into madness instead of into terror, right, which is a a terror in and of itself a little bit, but it is kind of specific, right, and it’s a great movie. It’s just not the same movie at all, right. This is a much more surreal and confusing film than the which, however, what this movie does share with Eggers, his first film is a meticulous, historically accurate film with a unique and striking visual style. Yeah, well, while I might not have loved this film as much as I thought I would I can’t help but have respect for Eggers is ambitious artistic vision. Um And then the other main thing is Pattinson and foe are amazing. I can’t I cannot I cannot believe how good patents in this. Yeah, they was. First of all, it’s perfect casting for both of them. Yeah, absolutely different. Defoe is obviously, like, so perfect for at this point, he’s like a perfectly ripe fruit. He’s just got he just got it down for acting. Yeah, but Pattinson blew me away. Like I was like, Oh, the guy from fucking twilight. Okay. Yeah, all right. But in particular I mean, William Dafoe. Willem Dafoe is a fantastic actor, and he couldn’t be great in anything but in particular this type of role. Oh, yeah, he is so good at I believe he’s that guy. Um they both give amazing performances. There are some really great scenes and monologues in here. General audiences are probably going to be turned off by a lot of the choices that are made in terms of narrated in terms of narrative and visual style. But film students will be creaming over this movie for years to come. I mean, it is just fascinating. And I mean, that’s what the takeaway from listening to our e aster and Robert Eggers in that a 24 podcast. The episode. They’re both huge film nerds like You just really like deep dives into history of filmmaking and, you know, lenses, 100 Eggers shots and stuff. So it comes out in this movie you can really tell in this movie. Well, almost to the point where it’s a little bit like yeah, okay, guy looking to shoot in 11 like, Yeah, I mean, it’s It’s a little that’s a little so that shooting in a 11 ratio makes it almost like on the surface. Do she? Yeah. I mean, it’s it would be very easy, And I’m sure there’s gonna be plenty of people in our horror or just General Egg. And general audiences are gonna look at this and be like, Well, this guy’s a huge, pretentious douche, right? Like this is just but also it is insulting to my sensibility. If he is that he’s way better at it than anybody else. Oh, yeah? Yeah, you know, kind of Shut up. Yes. I mean, it’s still a great movie. Is this a horror movie? Kind of. It has enough horror elements to qualify. Um, it’s way more of a horror movie than Happy Death Day to you. Oh, my God. Ah, But most of the focus is on the tension between the two main characters and the mental instability caused by seclusion and alcoholism. That being said, there are definitely some Lovecraft ian and folkloric or elements in here. So I kind of struggled with a score for this because I can recognize that it is a great, great film, but also, it’s not completely for me, right? I was There was some really great moments that I really enjoyed, but I don’t know if I’m going to be revisiting this film very much. And I know I laughed several parts and wince like it was very effective. Oh, yeah, and really beautiful. Um, but I can’t give it a 10 out of 10 like I did the witch e. I think the which is just a perfect movie. And this one I don’t know. I mean, it’s It’s just It’s so subjective. It’s a preference thing, but I give it a eight out of 10. Yeah, so I, too, have been thinking about this score. Excuse me for a while now, and Ah, and I seem to be hovering around a 72 and nine. And I know what you’re talking about. Like with the witch. Um, there’s nothing. There’s no fat on the bone. It all it’s all it’s all very wait well laid out. It’s all very intentional. But the problem is, the subject matter of this is losing your mind and so happy. And so there is a lot of nefarious, weird, extraneous baloney, right? That adds to that in ways that well, that could’ve been cut out. But could it right? Like Okay, well, now I get to see Willem Defoe kind of humping his bed in a in a in a in a take. This isn’t the spoiler section sleeping in a peeping tom sort of way. Is that necessary? Well, no. But also yes, because like, this is about two men going mad together, right? And ah, and so I think I think in If you ask me in eight months the same way. If you ask me in eight months about the house that Jack built, I think I’ll like this movie a lot more. Yeah, yeah, and it’s a good point in so because Because my expectations will have been tempered and I won’t I won’t expect another which I will have gone. Oh, that’s a movie about losing your mind. And it’s perfect at that. Yeah, and so I don’t know. I think I think I fall between eight and nine. Something like that. I’m not crazy ecstatic about it. Yeah, and that’s a taste thing, But it’s a It’s a great movie, so you gotta choose. Is it eight or nine? That’s I mean right now as as it as it stands, I’d say it’s a high eight. Okay, Yeah, see? I mean, I originally was going to give it a seven, and then I stood back and I was like Huh, It’s too good to be a seven iss. It really is that the quality of the of the craft is so impressive. Acting alone makes is so is so great yet that it has for me, it’s just Oh my God like it was so, so brilliant watching the chemistry between the phone patents and like, yeah, I mean, it’s enchanting. Yeah, it was. It was it. And it’ll stick with you in a weird sort of salty breeze kind of way. Yeah, so that’s our score. Before we get into spoilers, let’s talk about some business items. This is what we call our mid roll section. Please check out our patri on if your ah, long time listener or if you’re starting to get into the show and like it, support us directly by going to our patron, you’ll get access to special patron bonus content. 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Yeah, so yeah, again. Thanks for listening. Let’s get into school. Boilers, boilers, Spoilers. Okay, so this is a movie that you don’t necessarily have to talk about all the beats of it of the film because I still don’t really know what went on through a lot of it. There’s a couple things to hit in terms of plot, but really, I wanted to talk about it’s some of the It would be annoying in the extreme to hit it be by being Yeah, so just want to talk about some of the elements that stood out and that were really great and unique about this film. Um, first of all, the visual style is really striking right off the bat. It’s you really hard if they start out on a ship in the fog. And it’s just this gray screen with this haunting like you like he said, Like Kaiju esque, um moaning, foghorn in the distance. That’s just that kind of shakes the whole theater. Yeah, well, that would be sound. Um, but we’re talking about visual style. Oh, my apologies. Sorry. Put you on blast. So first thing that you notice is ah, the aspect ratio is 1.19 by one, which is basically square. Yeah, it looks like an instagram frame. And it’s one of those things that and it’s in black and white. So black and white square aspect ratio And even I knowing Eggers and that this is gonna be a super artistic film. And I think I even heard that the aspect ratio was gonna be that. But even I was expecting after the intro to be like and now it widens out in tow. Widescreen. It’s like, No, no, you The full time is that aspect ratio super confined and claustrophobic, which actually works really good for the subject matter. Yeah, and the and there are not a lot of any time you’re with a person in this movie, you’re close to them. It the framing is Cloris. It’s lots of close ups. Yeah, and I mean putting it in that aspect ratio is really interesting in terms of the balance of the conflict, the framing of it, of the shots. I don’t know, it’s it just has a really unique style is really evocative, Um, showing stuff in such unequal framing. You know that the one thing that does bother me about like Ma modern movie trends is this is and it’s inescapable at this point, it seems like because even the lighthouse is doing it, which is these cut These jump cut edits where you just cut back and forth between two people talking instead of having a full frame of them talking. And I understand the reasoning behind it in this moving. But in movies like Transformers or something like that, work just any blockbuster movie where you constantly have to be looking directly at the face of the person who is talking to the other person, who then it jumps to and it it cuts up the movie in this weird, like if you go back and watch Hitchcock or if you go back and watch movies from from the forties or fifties that you get these long panning shots that are that are granted, they’re probably much, much harder to capture in terms of acting, because you can just have a take. You have to have people act against each other very, very in a very convincing way, and it doesn’t lend itself to the cutting room floor very well. But I would like to see a movie that doesn’t that has these long panning shots. Yeah, it feels like older movies definitely used the two and three shot a lot more and put put people in the you know, what would he call that? They stage it a lot better toe, but it’s also the films of those older generations are also much more closely related to stage, and so they’re used to blocking for Stage two, where you know people are frame to sir, they’re they’re facing a certain way. It’s where it’s all very convenient to see him at the same spot, right, But it’s But for the viewer, it’s a continuity thing. It’s a little bit disorienting. It’s I didn’t notice that in this in this movie I mean, there’s a lot of jump cuts and stuff that that air a little giant on purpose. But I didn’t know specifically that, Um, I mean, it’s something that I watch for just because my uncle well will literally not watch anything past a certain year because he’s like It’s too. He noted that he said, he’s basically it’s just just too jarring for me and I don’t I don’t appreciate the craft as much as I do. And so now I have an eye out for it. And, ah, that’s interesting. And he’s right, you know it is. It is choppy. But anyway, so the look of this film is also affected by the technology used. They used some really, really old technology. Older lenses, older cameras really film, nerdy stuff, older film stock. The film stock was I’m not a nerd enough to actually say what the film they used was. But what I did find out about it is that it requires really high exposure, like you have to have said something like they had the light it like 20 times brighter than normal. Thio, get stuff visual, you know. So apparently, even though this film feels really dark, really 10 through a lot of it, apparently, like the thing the Via Crew would have to wear like sunglasses a lot of the time because it was so brightly lit. That’s crazy. Um, and this all gives the effect that this film is plucked out of time. Yeah, it’s there’s a shot early on of Dafoe and patents and basically looking in the frame as they’re approaching the lighthouse or their know they’re looking at the at the boat sail away beginning and it literally looks like an old West photo or like a World war documentary shot, just like Okay, guys, stand here. I just wanna I just want to get a shot of E. And it looks like two grizzled war veterans that are like, what? I got to stand here and do this shit money I got. I gotta feed them hogs, you know, like it’s the so I mean, there’s a lot of that element that all this visual style really evokes. Yeah, and as in right following that as the boat as they’re watching the boat slip away into the fog. It feels like a miniature Feels like they’re using a miniature boat. Then they Maybe because it slips off into like this What feels like a miniature set? Yeah, and missed. It kind of just disappears into the mist. Um, okay, let’s Now, let’s talk about the sound design of the movie, which is also fantastic. Um, like you said, What were you gonna say about the foghorn? Oh, it was just It was rattling. And it was, you know, it was, um Yeah. Okay, so if you’re going to if you’re going to live on top of the foghorn and there’s fog around, it’s going to be pervasive to the extreme. I mean, the sound is just going to be all encompassing. And it felt that way in the theater. It felt it felt like, uh, oppressive. It was this, um Oh, it was like a war siren and it Ah, it was loud and deep and long and it didn’t stop. It felt it felt a little Tetsuo the Iron Man e at the start of this movie, when he’s like in the, uh, in the coal room, you know? Yeah. And the result this machinery around him. It felt very claustrophobic and loud. Yeah, so the that sound. They used recordings of period accurate foghorns. Apparently, the sound designer on this film went to this guy on YouTube that makes YouTube videos, of course, maintaining foghorn landlord about period foghorns. I think I’ve actually seen some of the videos which are really soothing, like it just shows him, like oiling and maintaining these old foghorns, and you see it winding up and slowly, like the machinery’s like taking away, and then it slowly winds up. Ah, you know, it’s really cool anyway, So they took the, like, the period accurate foghorn sounds, and they manipulated them to be more ominous, memorable and unique to the film. It really is a unique sound and very like menacing. Yeah, and the in the sound of the ocean. And the weather is always in the background and always, always kind of washing over you and the music is there, but it’s pretty sparse. It doesn’t get in the way. Um, Eggers talked about just what he wanted with the film. He didn’t want a lot of strings. He didn’t want a lot of, um, you know, orchestrations a lot of wins, Um, mentioned like Alia torque music, which is kind of random chance music chanting No chance. What’s chance? Like roll of the dice Chance I don’t I still don’t know what you’re talking about. Probability. Oh, chance. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Um, So I thought you were saying C h a N t s. And like explaining that dice were an instrument. Bryce, are you insane? The production design? Same. Same with, uh, his previous movie, the which is really impressive. Yeah, just period accurate. They look fantastic. They built an actual life sized working lighthouse from scratch in Nova Scotia. Are you serious? Yeah. So they didn’t They didn’t build all the interiors and stuff, but the the exter