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TIFF Review: ‘The Lighthouse’ is Not For the Faint of Heart

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The Lighthouse

Robert Eggers’ sophomore follow-up to 2015’s The Witch is a gradual descent into madness; a journey not for the faint of heart.

The Lighthouse follows two lighthouse keepers on a remote and mysterious New England island in the 1890s. As their time on the island progresses, their patience wears thin and an obsession develops around the brilliant beacon of the lighthouse.

Visually, the film is stunning. Shot in black and white with a 4:3 ratio, the cinematography grips its subject and holds tight. Entire monologues are held with an unblinking eye, driving the incredible performances from stars Robert Pattinson and Willem Dafoe deep through so you can feel their intensity in your bones.

The Lighthouse

via A24

As The Lighthouse progresses, the camera echoes the characters’ slip on sanity by increasingly leaning on dutch angles, putting the audience ill-at-ease. The lighting – as with The Witch – appears to be all done naturally; scenes are awash with natural daylight and shadowed by the light of a single lantern in a dark room. For a film that is built around a growing obsession with a beacon of light, every change in lighting feels emphasized, particularly in the stark black and white coloring.

The imagery found within The Lighthouse is entwined in beautiful tableaux seeping with symbolism. Maritime superstitions and mythology flow throughout the film, washing over the action and crashing into the story like waves, pulling the characters under.

Robert Pattinson digs in with a tortured performance that puts DiCaprio’s in The Revenant to shame. He physically toils scene after scene after scene, exhausting the audience and drumming up immediate empathy for his struggles. Both Pattinson and Dafoe leave it all on the table; they suffer greatly for the sake of the film, and it’s incredible to watch. Their collaborative commitment to constantly one-up each other on the scale of insanity is wildly impressive. 

Dafoe is completely lost in his character, so much so that his strong accent and mumbling dialogue can be difficult to suss out at times. There’s one particularly earth-shattering monologue that reverberates on screen that – thankfully – is spat out with such passion that it’s much clearer than some of his other ramblings. Though it can be challenging to track exactly what he’s saying, he’s always easy to follow thanks to Dafoe’s crystal clear performance. 

When it comes to monologues, The Lighthouse is blessed with some real knockouts. Pattinson and Dafoe rise to the challenge and deliver gripping performances that speak to their raw talent as actors. Eggers knows the level of skill he’s working with and captures their tirades with the utmost respect, allowing them to flex their artistic muscles.

via A24

Surprisingly, The Lighthouse actually has some moments of real humor peppered in. These bits of levity are drawn from the overall absurdity of the film and build on the relationship between our two main (and only) characters — though they’re not exactly jovial. Their constant battle turns from a one-sided verbal thrashing to a hypnotic dance of toxic camaraderie. 

Eggers has proven himself to be one of the most exciting directors working in genre cinema today. The Lighthouse has so much bubbling under the surface, and as the film progresses, it boils over and floods every inch of the screen with unhinged madness. Eggers is extraordinarily talented and we can’t wait to see what he does next.

All that said, The Lighthouse is not for everyone. It’s definitely a slow burn, and it may be a bit too off-kilter for some audiences. But if you approach the film with patience and an open mind, there is a lot to take away. It’s not an easy journey, but it’s one you won’t soon forget.

For more on TIFF 2019, check out our interview with Midnight Madness programmer Peter Kuplowsky and the full 2019 Midnight Madness lineup.

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Another Creepy Spider Movie Hits Shudder This Month

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Good spider films are a theme this year. First, we had Sting and then there was Infested. The former is still in theaters and the latter is coming to Shudder starting April 26.

Infested has been getting some good reviews. People are saying that it’s not only a great creature feature but also a social commentary on racism in France.

According to IMDb: Writer/director Sébastien Vanicek was looking for ideas around the discrimination faced by black and Arab-looking people in France, and that led him to spiders, which are rarely welcome in homes; whenever they’re spotted, they’re swatted. As everyone in the story (people and spiders) is treated like vermin by society, the title came to him naturally.

Shudder has become the gold standard for streaming horror content. Since 2016, the service has been offering fans an expansive library of genre movies. in 2017, they began to stream exclusive content.

Since then Shudder has become a powerhouse in the film festival circuit, buying distribution rights to movies, or just producing some of their own. Just like Netflix, they give a film a short theatrical run before adding it to their library exclusively for subscribers.

Late Night With the Devil is a great example. It was released theatrically on March 22 and will begin streaming on the platform starting April 19.

While not getting the same buzz as Late Night, Infested is a festival favorite and many have said if you suffer from arachnophobia, you might want to take heed before watching it.

Infested

According to the synopsis, our main character, Kalib is turning 30 and dealing with some family issues. “He’s fighting with his sister over an inheritance and has cut ties with his best friend. Fascinated by exotic animals, he finds a venomous spider in a shop and brings it back to his apartment. It only takes a moment for the spider to escape and reproduce, turning the whole building into a dreadful web trap. The only option for Kaleb and his friends is to find a way out and survive.”

The film will be available to watch on Shudder starting April 26.

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Part Concert, Part Horror Movie M. Night Shyamalan’s ‘Trap’ Trailer Released

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In true Shyamalan form, he sets his film Trap inside a social situation where we aren’t sure what is going on. Hopefully, there is a twist at the end. Furthermore, we hope it’s better than the one in his divisive 2021 movie Old.

The trailer seemingly gives away a lot, but, as in the past, you can’t rely on his trailers because they are often red herrings and you are being gaslit to think a certain way. For instance, his movie Knock at the Cabin was completely different than what the trailer implied and if you hadn’t read the book on which the film is based it was still like going in blind.

The plot for Trap is being dubbed an “experience” and we aren’t quite sure what that means. If we were to guess based on the trailer, it’s a concert movie wrapped around a horror mystery. There are original songs performed by Saleka, who plays Lady Raven, a kind of Taylor Swift/Lady Gaga hybrid. They have even set up a Lady Raven website to further the illusion.

Here is the fresh trailer:

According to the synopsis, a father takes his daughter to one of Lady Raven’s jam-packed concerts, “where they realize they’re at the center of a dark and sinister event.”

Written and directed by M. Night Shyamalan, Trap stars Josh Hartnett, Ariel Donoghue, Saleka Shyamalan, Hayley Mills and Allison Pill. The film is produced by Ashwin Rajan, Marc Bienstock and M. Night Shyamalan. The executive producer is Steven Schneider.

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Woman Brings Corpse Into Bank To Sign Loan Papers

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Warning: This is a disturbing story.

You have to be pretty desperate for money to do what this Brazilian woman did at the bank to get a loan. She wheeled in a fresh corpse to endorse the contract and she seemingly thought the bank employees wouldn’t notice. They did.

This weird and disturbing story comes via ScreenGeek an entertainment digital publication. They write that a woman identified as Erika de Souza Vieira Nunes pushed a man she identified as her uncle into the bank pleading with him to sign loan papers for $3,400. 

If you’re squeamish or easily triggered, be aware that the video captured of the situation is disturbing. 

Latin America’s largest commercial network, TV Globo, reported on the crime, and according to ScreenGeek this is what Nunes says in Portuguese during the attempted transaction. 

“Uncle, are you paying attention? You must sign [the loan contract]. If you don’t sign, there’s no way, as I cannot sign on your behalf!”

She then adds: “Sign so you can spare me further headaches; I can’t bear it any longer.” 

At first we thought this might be a hoax, but according to Brazilian police, the uncle, 68-year-old Paulo Roberto Braga had passed away earlier that day.

 “She attempted to feign his signature for the loan. He entered the bank already deceased,” Police Chief Fábio Luiz said in an interview with TV Globo. “Our priority is to continue investigating to identify other family members and gather more information regarding this loan.”

If convicted Nunes could be facing jail time on charges of fraud, embezzlement, and desecration of a corpse.

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