Two months after debuting at Cannes Film Festival and receiving an abundance of rave reviews, the first official trailer for The Lighthouse has been revealed.
The highly-anticipated Robert Eggers-directed psychological horror flick stars Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattinson, side-by-side, as a pair of mysterious lighthouse keepers.
Accompanied by an eerie score, The Lighthouse was shot entirely in black and white film on a 35mm camera, as shown and heard in the nearly two-minute trailer.
Eggers is best known for his 2015 supernatural horror film, The Witch, and this time around the director enlisted younger brother, Max Eggers, to co-write the film with him.
The 110 minute-spanning feature was produced by independent entertainment company A24, who are responsible for films like Ex Machina (2014), Moonlight (2016) and Hereditary (2018) among many others.
Before its official release this October, The Lighthouse will be shown during this year’s Toronto International Film Festival (or TIFF).
As of this writing, the schedule has not yet been revealed.
In the trailer’s opening, Pattinson’s character, Ephraim Winslow, is introduced as a younger man looking for work at Thomas Wake’s (Dafoe) lighthouse — which is perched upon a small New England island in the middle of the sea. It’s set in the 1890s.
“Tell me, what’s a timberman want with being a wickie?” asks Wake.
“Just looking to earn a living like any man,” replies Winslow. “Starting new.”
“On the run,” suggests Wake. “Keeping secrets, are you?” he asks again.
The intensity of the music builds up as a montage of clips with conflicting emotions and auras fill the screen. There’s drinking, violence, camaraderie, shanties and an overbearing sense of isolation.
Things take a turn, however, as it cuts to not only a mysterious woman sinking to the depths of the ocean, but an octopus-like creature which looms in the background of the lighthouse.
The drama concludes with a huge flash of lightning streaking across the sky above the island. Dafoe’s character asks Pattinson’s, “How long have we been on this rock? Five weeks? Two days? Help me to recollect.”
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The entirety of the movie was filmed in Canada, too. More specifically, Cape Forchu, on the western tip of Nova Scotia.
The Lighthouse hits cinemas across Canada on Oct. 18.