The Lighthouse (2019)

"The location atmosphere is thick, anxious, pregnant with foreboding. The ocean undulates in the distance, threatening to devour the protagonists whole like some abyssal Lovecraftian gut. The stench of flatulence and boozy bodily fluid fill every damp crevasse of their creaky quarters. As the clockwork drudgery grows increasingly absurd in its endlessness, the glowing, omniscient lamp they’re toiling to keep running becomes an inexplicable vortex of arcane mystery, enchantment and discontent."

"Add to the director's formal brilliance two highly committed performances from Pattinson and Dafoe and you have a thrilling gothic vision of madness that may well be an oppressive experience, yet is something to be admired."

"There’s little suspense in any of it – partly because the outcome is inevitable. What’s more, neither man has managed to generate much sympathy, so it doesn’t qualify as tragedy. There is no fall from grace because there has never been much grace to lose. It’s all academic."

"Eggers meticulously sets the scene, adds texture and builds tension and mystery from men locked in battle and sometimes in embrace."

""The Lighthouse" may be a little too in love with its own virtuosity, but who can blame it? At a time when American movies are overrun with shopworn visions, its madness is a balm and a beacon."

"If you’re up for some weird, dense, symbolist gear, then The Lighthouse might just be the beacon in the darkness you’ve been searching for."

"Peerless filmmaking from a director who's emerging as one of contemporary horror's true greats."

"It leaves you dazed, terrified and elated, and it signals Eggers as one of the most exciting directors working today."

"It has the feel of a newly discovered artefact from FW Murnau (Nosferatu)."

"It's as if this footage has just been unearthed after a century mouldering in a Scandinavian documentary film archive."

"There are moments where Pattinson is so transformative it's jarring. You simply never thought he had it in him."