The Lighthouse (2019)
- Unlike modern films, the massive explosion sequence in The Lighthouse used zero CGI. The crew spent three weeks setting up the practical rig for a single take.
- The most famous, quotable line in The Lighthouse wasn't actually in the script; it was completely improvised by the actor on the third take.
The Lighthouse is a 2019 American psychological horror film directed by Robert Eggers. Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattinson star as Thomas Wake and Ephraim Winslow, two lighthouse keepers assigned to a remote, storm-battered New England island in the 1890s. As weeks of isolation, harsh labor, alcohol, and the oppressive environment take their toll, the men's relationship deteriorates from grudging coexistence to madness, paranoia, and violence, fueled by Wake's tyrannical control of the lighthouse lamp and Winslow's growing obsession with its light.
Robert Eggers shot the film in black and white using a nearly square 1.19:1 aspect ratio, creating images of claustrophobic intensity that evoked both 19th-century photography and German Expressionist cinema. Willem Dafoe's Wake, speaking in thick sea-dog dialect and delivering monologues of Melvillian fury, was one of the most extraordinary performances of the decade. Robert Pattinson matched him as a man whose sanity unravels in increasingly violent and surreal ways.
The Lighthouse earned $18 million worldwide on a $11 million budget.
