Back in May, the second feature film from The Witch director Robert Eggers premiered at Cannes. The Lighthouse is a black and white fantasy horror that won over the critics and already has Oscars buzz around winning Best Picture next year. Set in 1890s Maine, the creepy setting sees Robert Pattinson’s new lighthouse keeper, Ephraim Winslow reporting to Dafoe’s experienced Thomas Wake before all kinds of weirdness beckons between the two of them. The first trailer for The Lighthouse beautifully shows off the black and white imagery captured on 35mm box-shaped film, that makes it look and feel like something made 100 years ago.
After the end credits at the premiere, Eggers, Pattinson and Dafoe were met with a standing ovation – one that may be predicting 2020 Oscars glory.
Since the premiere, The Lighthouse has garnered 98% positive reviews on Rotten Tomatoes, with a string of five-star reviews.
Time Out wrote: “It leaves you dazed, terrified and elated, and it signals Eggers as one of the most exciting directors working today.”
While The Guardian said: “Very few films can make you scared and excited at the same time. Just like the lighthouse beam, this is dazzling and dangerous.”
The Batman, which will release in summer 2021, is set in the 1990s and is more of a detective story, going back to the Caped Crusader’s DC roots.
By the sounds of it this won’t be your usual superhero fanfare, but closer in tone to Joaquin Phoenix’s Joker (out this October) which already has Oscars buzz itself.
The latter is set in the 1980s, so it’s possible the two will face each other in a future movie.
The Lighthouse is released on October 18, 2019.