Fans of Robert Eggers’s 2015 horror folklore flick The Witch will be delighted to know that he has managed to pull off a second feat in nightmarish world-building with his sophomore film, The Lighthouse. Much like how he immersed audiences into the depths of the forests of 17^th-century New England four years prior, this time he leaves viewers to their own devices on a secluded island in the year 1890, populated only by the film’s two subjects, Ephraim Winslow and Thomas Wake (played by Robert Pattinson and Willem Dafoe, respectively.)

Rooted in a script brimming with old-fashioned nautical dialect (co-written by Robert’s brother, Max) and shot completely in black-and-white, Eggers triumphs in creating a horror film that doesn’t look or sound like any other contemporary film of the genre yet doesn’t sacrifice any of the scares in the process. If you were impressed by the authenticity of the dialogue and set design of his first film, you will be delighted by his second effort.

The Lighthouse turns its titular structure, an obscure building that many are aware of, but few know about, and turns it into a character of its own. As modern technology has rendered the practice of lighthouse-keeping into near extinction, Eggers provides his audience with a glimpse into this often-forgotten occupation and the potential physical and mental toll such a job could take on a person in charge of it.

The role of a lighthouse keeper has been described as “a mechanic, construction worker, and sailor all rolled into one,” and the character of Winslow exemplifies this with aplomb. As second-in-command to Wake, who takes great pride in tending to the lighthouse beam all by himself, Winslow must tend to every possible chore imaginable, from hauling enormous gas tanks up multiple flights of stairs to ensuring that the water supply remains clean. This dictator/serf relationship between the two sole characters is the film’s focal point, which soon unravels as food runs low and the booze begins to flow.

Of course, you can’t have a film centered on men at sea without a sprinkling of marine superstition and sea mythology, and it is from these categories that the movie draws some of its most frightening elements. The writers drew their inspiration from the works of Herman Melville and H.P. Lovecraft, and this becomes more and more apparent as the story progresses. The more psychological elements of the film were inspired by the real-life events that took place at the Smalls Lighthouse in Wales in 1801, involving two lighthouse keepers who were stranded at the location.

Whereas The Witch favored leaving more of the supernatural elements up to the viewers’ imaginations, The Lighthouse presents a montage of gothic-horror imagery coupled with a growing sense of cabin fever and isolation, at times akin to the closed-in atmosphere of Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining. The film’s tiny aspect ratio (1.19:1, to be exact) further adds to its sense of confinement, while its haunting sound design lends it a truly nightmare-like feel. This is certainly a film that will stick around in people’s heads for a long, long time.

Editor’s Note: This review was originally published out of Cannes on Jun 3, 2019.