The Lighthouse is a 2019 film directed by Robert Eggers that stars Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattinson as two lighthouse keepers named Thomas Wake and Ephraim Winslow. Set in the late 1800s on a remote rocky island, the movie follows their tense weeks together as they maintain the lighthouse while battling storms, isolation, and their own unraveling minds. Shot in stark black and white with a square aspect ratio, it feels like an old silent film mixed with horror, full of strange symbols and myths rather than a straightforward storyhttps://screenrant.com/horror-directors-2026-ranking/.
The film’s core draws from real sailor tales and ancient myths, like the Greek story of Prometheus, who stole fire from the gods and suffered endlessly, and Proteus, a shape-shifting sea god who guarded secrets. Wake acts like a controlling old sailor who hoards the lighthouse’s top light, treating it as sacred, while Winslow, the younger worker, grows obsessed and resentful. Their fights over chores, booze, and secrets build to madness, blending guilt, power struggles, and paranoiahttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKuScOJkM_c.
What makes The Lighthouse stick in your mind is its ending, which stays wide open on purpose. After a brutal fight, Winslow climbs the spiral stairs to the light, only to face a wild vision with tentacles and a screaming seabird. Does he reach the light and find freedom, or fall to his death? Some see it as Winslow’s mind breaking from guilt over past crimes, like killing his old boss. Others think Wake, the real boss, wins the power game by driving Winslow insane. The bird, a one-eyed gull, might represent Winslow’s soul or a curse from sea lore, since killing it unleashes bad luckhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKuScOJkM_chttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XEN4uM8wfpI.
Eggers leaves it ambiguous to mirror real life at sea, where logs from wrecked ships mix fact and wild stories with no clear truth. This pulls you in, making you question isolation’s toll and what men hide from each other. The light itself stands for forbidden knowledge or desire, like Prometheus’s fire, that destroys those who chase it too hardhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKuScOJkM_c.
Fans debate theories endlessly: one says Winslow is already dead, reliving punishment; another points to mermaids and logs as hallucinations from tainted booze. Eggers wanted this, saying the film’s power comes from your own fears filling the gapshttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XEN4uM8wfpI.
Sources
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKuScOJkM_c
https://screenrant.com/horror-directors-2026-ranking/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XEN4uM8wfpI
https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/awards/newsletter/2026-01-02/envelope-newsletter-anticipated-movies-2026-oscars
https://guides.mga.edu/c.php?g=456200&p=4286067
