Plot

Based on real events which saw two lighthouse keepers stranded for months at sea in a freak storm, the film tells a tale of death, madness and isolation; a desolate trip into the heart of human darkness.

Based on the infamous Smalls Island Incident of 1801, 'The Lighthouse' follows Thomas Howell and Thomas Griffith's disastrous posting to Smalls Island Lighthouse to 'keep the light' 25 miles from land and surrounded by the deadly Irish sea. The men are stranded in a freak storm that rages for months, nothing short of an act of God. The film tells a tale of death, madness, and isolation; a desolate trip into the heart of human darkness.

In 1801, encircled by the vast and unforgiving sea, a gentle and God-fearing keeper, Thomas Howell, and a seasoned principal lighthouse keeper, Thomas Griffiths, find themselves on Smalls Island, a tiny sliver of land, 25 miles off the Welsh coast. Stationed at a cramped, single-room lighthouse, the two polar opposite men must maintain the light at all costs; however, long and exceedingly violent squalls trap the keepers in the already precarious structure. Profound guilt, desperate hunger, despairing anguish, and uncanny isolation start to get the best of them. Before the two Thomases, many perished on the hungry rock. Will this beacon now claim their lives, too?—Nick Riganas