ANNABELLE BRAND explores Robert Eggers’ maritime horror, The Lighthouse, through an examination of the texts which influenced it. ‘A thousand thousand slimy things lived on—and so did I,’ recounts the titular sailor of Coleridge’s The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. The mariner’s curse would not be amiss if spoken into The Lighthouse. The claustrophobic new horror, directed by Robert Eggers, and co-written by Eggers and his brother Max, promises viewers an opportunity to hang up, if not their brains, then certainly their peace of mind, with their hats (or sou’westers) in the cloakroom. Tentacles, seabirds, mermaids and storms all ooze their way from the depths of the ocean into the psyche of both characters and audience, and cling there long after the credits have rolled. The horror of The Lighthouse is one of familiarity. The audience cannot help but recognise the shadowy influences of Eggers’ work from half-remembered history books, whispered bedtime…Continue Reading