The Lighthouse arrived in theaters in 2019 and hailed as a masterpiece of American gothic storytelling. The story is an original tale that focused on two lighthouse keepers who start to lose their sanity when a storm strands them on the remote island where they are stationed. However, the basic premise, a man arriving on an island to be a lightkeeper, came from the original idea of the film.
Originally, the script was being solely worked on by Max Eggers, brother of the director Robert Eggers. He was trying trying to adapt a contemporary version of The Light-House, an unfinished story by Edgar Allan Poe that he was working on when he died in 1849. However, besides the title and the basic premise (Along with the plot device of a journal keeping track of the events of the story), the film ultimately bares little resemblance to the manuscript. This was because, when the project stalled, Robert Eggers offered to work with his brother and the project evolved into a period thriller with the Poe elements largely removed. The result is far more psychological than what Poe had written although, given the manuscript was never finished and considering Poe's known macabre works, the film's final version probably would have made him proud! Stay tuned!
Comments