A new film set to hit theaters this fall is set entirely in a remote Maine lighthouse in the late 19th century, and may or may not feature a mermaid, a sea monster or some combination thereof.
“The Lighthouse,” directed by New Hampshire native Robert Eggers, features just two stars: Robert Pattinson and Willem Dafoe. The former is best known for playing vampiric heartthrob Edward Cullen in the “Twilight” films, though he’s since made mostly independent films with auteurs including David Cronenberg and Werner Herzog. The latter has appeared in everything from “Speed 2: Cruise Control” to Lars von Trier’s wildly disturbing art film “Antichrist.”
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Pattinson and Dafoe play Ephraim and Thomas, respectively, two grizzled Maine lighthouse keepers (“wickies,” to use the old-timey term), both stationed on the same lonely rock for a months-long assignment. It’s set in a time period that looks to be sometime in the late 19th or early 20th century, and it appears that Thomas, Pattinson’s character, is a Maine “timberman” newly arrived to the rock, who may be on the run from some unspecified dark past.
The trailer makes it clear that things do not go well, with Thomas and Ephraim alternately laughing, dancing, drinking, fighting and, eventually, losing their sanity. There appears to be some sort of mermaid — though at second glance, it may be some sort of horrific sea monster. Are our wickies actually in the presence of the paranormal? Or are they just hallucinating?
“The Lighthouse” premiered at the Cannes Film Festival back in May to rapturous reviews from critics, citing Pattinson and Dafoe’s explosive performances, Eggers’ period-specific, oddly funny script, and the gorgeous, unsettling cinematography, production design and score.
“The Lighthouse” is director Eggers’ second feature film. His first, horror fable “The Witch,” is also set in historic New England, with that film set in colonial Massachusetts, telling the story of a 1630s family torn apart by evil, supernatural forces. Eggers seems to be fascinated by the mystical darkness of old New England, tapping into a rich vein of imaginative, terrifying storytelling mined previously by everyone from H.P. Lovecraft to Stephen King.
Eggers shot the movie on black and white 35 millimeter film, in the 1.33:1 aspect ratio that you’d see in early silent films — if you’ve ever seen German expressionist films such as “The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari” or “Nosferatu,” you know the look. It was filmed on the volcanic rock of Cape Forchu in Nova Scotia, near the town of Yarmouth, on the other side of the Gulf of Maine from Washington County, in yet another example of cheaper-to-film-in-Canada standing in for Maine.
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According to the film’s IMDB page, Pattinson’s way of speaking in the film is based on the way inland Maine farmers spoke in the 19th century. In order to make the dialogue in the film sound naturalistic and accurate for the time period, director Eggers and his co-screenwriter, his brother Max Eggers, consulted the works of Maine writer Sarah Orne Jewett, famed for her novel “The Country of the Pointed Firs,” which details the difficult and isolated lives of people in small Maine fishing villages in the late 19th century.
“The Lighthouse” is not the first time Dafoe has played a character facing madness on the waters of Maine. In 1991, Dafoe was featured in the cult classic TV series “Fishing With John,” in an episode in which he and series creator John Lurie, playing fictionalized versions of themselves, go ice fishing in northern Maine and nearly starve to death. Dafoe also owns a house on Thompson Lake in Oxford.
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Whether you’re interested in Maine-centric scares, weird art films, or simply will watch anything Robert Pattinson is in, this is certainly a movie to watch out for. “The Lighthouse” is due in theaters on Oct. 18.
