Robert Pattinson's new movie, The Lighthouse, is being hailed by critics as one of the most gripping horror films in recent years - which is high praise, indeed, given the calibre we've come to expect.
Sure, many of you still see Robert Pattinson as Harry Potter heartthrob Cedric Diggory or sparkly vampire Edward Cullen in the Twilight franchise, but it looks like you might need to get with the times, as his turn in the new flick shows us a much darker side to the 33-year-old.
The Lighthouse is a black-and-white horror directed by Robert Eggers, which stars Pattinson and Willem Dafoe (Aquaman) as two lighthouse keepers losing their minds on a remote island.
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A24's synopsis offers: "From Robert Eggers, the visionary filmmaker behind modern horror masterpiece The Witch, comes this hypnotic and hallucinatory tale of two lighthouse keepers on a remote and mysterious New England island in the 1890s."
In short, it's a buddy movie with a twist - the twist being that it's a dark and surreal 'descent into madness', according to the critics singing its praises.
NME critic Elizabeth Aubrey said the film falls somewhere between The Shining and Moby Dick, writing: "It's one of the most gripping horrors of recent years, but not in the typical 'jump-scare' manner you might imagine - if anything, this film does a good job of re-writing the genre afresh."
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Rolling Stone's Peter Travers said The Lighthouse 'seeps into your bones', adding: "We knew Eggers was the real deal in gothic horror with his 2015 feature, The Witch, a crafty debut set in 1630 New England and brimming with beauty and terror.
"In The Lighthouse, Eggers once again astutely mixes the rational and its opposite, pulling us into the supernatural with subtle cunning and meticulous attention to period detail... You'd have to search hard to find a movie this hypnotic and haunting."
Lindsey Bahr of the Associated Press, meanwhile, found the film was a 'stark, moody, surreal and prolonged descent into seaside madness,' writing: "Pattinson and Dafoe have a wonderfully complex relationship that at times even borders on that of a bickering married couple whose passion is long gone... By the end, you might find yourself feeling as crazy and untethered as the wickies."
The Lighthouse premiered at Cannes Film Festival earlier this year, and will hit screens on 31 January 2020.
Featured Image Credit: A24Topics: Entertainment, TV and Film, Robert Pattinson
