josiebonner

Had a chance to see this at a small festival earlier this year. First off, I know this won't be everyone's cup of tea. Imagine My Dinner With Andre crossed with Sunset Blvd. And Eraserhead, and you'll have a rough idea of the kind of movie we're talking about.

The movie fluctuates between sprawling, five-minute monologues and nightmarish visions of an endless industrial space, all hidden in a film-noir narrative. For the most part, the lengthy dialogue sequences are pretty interesting, given the tinge of madness they tend to have, but the film really finds its stride in the moments between these conversations. Overall, the cinematography is impressive to see and there are some interesting tricks and effects hidden throughout.

Unfortunately, the film seems to have been made on a shoe-string budget, and there are times where you can definitely tell. That said, for the constraints they had, the filmmakers have made something new, interesting, and well worth seeing.

So few horror films have any kind of staying power. More and more, there's a trend to be highly topical, fairly political, and extremely contemporary with the themes and situations. The Lighthouse is a throw back to timeless human conflict. Two men, the sea, and the terrible depths of their own imaginations. If movies still exist in a few hundred years, a film like this can be enjoyed with or without a complex understanding of the current culture.

The cinematography is astounding, as are the visual effects, practical and otherwise. The score will shake you to your core. You'll be sleeping with the lights on for sure. So different from Eggers' first film, from a visual perspective. In place of the clean, acrylic feeling of The Witch, there's texture in every shot - a combined effect of the film's grain, the antiquated lens, the rough textures of the production design, and the processing on the back end. Every choice works in concert with one another to a truly horrifying result.

It shouldn't be a surprise to anyone in the year 2023, but The Shining is the best (OK, maybe one of the best) horror films made of all time. On its surface, a very simple concept - a small, dysfunctional family finds themselves stuck in a haunted hotel across the winter. Every choice Kubrick makes leans into the feeling of simplicity, the feeling of a minimalist approach. But of course, the reality is that the film is anything but simple, with enormous sets both found and constructed, cutting edge camera work, and edge of your seat performances. King thought he could improve on the adaptation of his own work, and we can all see how that turned out... One of the best book adaptations to ever make it to the screen.