‘The Lighthouse’ Official Trailer: Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattinson Lose Their Damn Minds

Zack Sharf
Updated

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Following a new batch of rave reviews from the Toronto International Film Festival, A24 has gone ahead and premiered the new official trailer for Robert Eggers’ psychodrama “The Lighthouse.” The intimate and maddening two-hander stars Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattinson as lighthouse keepers who slowly lose their minds while living in isolation. The black-and-white drama is Eggers’ first directorial effort since breaking out four years ago with his Sundance sensation “The Witch,” which is often cited as one of the best horror efforts of the decade.

In his A- review out of the Cannes Film Festival, IndieWire’s chief critic Eric Kohn raved, “’The Lighthouse’ is a stunning showcase for Robert Pattinson and Willem Dafoe to unleash their wildest extremes, by positioning them at the center of a two-hander about a descent into madness in the middle of nowhere. It’s the best movie about bad roommates ever made.”

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Just how far “The Lighthouse” can go in this year’s awards season will depend on if voters are willing to get over their hesitancy towards genre films. IndieWire awards editor Anne Thompson wrote at Cannes that Dafoe and Pattinson’s performances should factor into the upcoming Oscar race. The film’s period production elements could also be strong contenders. Dafoe is being eyed to enter into the Best Supporting Actor race and could land his third Oscar nomination in a row after bids for Best Supporting Actor (“The Florida Project”) and Best Actor (“At Eternity’s Gate”). One of the big questions moving forward for “The Lighthouse” is how A24 will campaign its two actors, considering both are arguably the lead.

“The Lighthouse” is one of several Oscar hopefuls backed by A24 this year. The company already has Lulu Wang’s Sundance sensation “The Farewell,” which became a hit over the summer, while the Safdie brothers’ new thriller “Uncut Gems” and Trey Edward Shults’ family drama “Waves” earned critical acclaim at Telluride before heading to TIFF.

A24 will release “The Lighthouse” in select New York and Los Angeles theaters starting on October 18. Watch the new official trailer for Eggers’ latest in the video below.

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