31 Days of Halloween: The Lighthouse

 2019, Robert Eggers (The VVitch) -- Amazon

OK, what the fuck did I just watch. That was a beautiful, loud, disturbing movie that I am just not sure if I got anything from other than being impressed. For one, no, not horror despite the brief glimpses at things better left in other lighthouse movies. This was an arthouse flick about isolation and madness, but to be honest, after surviving 2020, 4 weeks on a rock with a farting, angry madman seems pretty par for the course. The real madness came from what was said, what was not said and a lingering guilt that just ate at him like a seagull picking at an errant french frie.

Winslow (Robert Pattinson, The Batman) has taken a job as lighthouse support under Thomas (Willem Dafoe, Odd Thomas), a maddening, demanding lighthouse keeper whose only joy seems to be the drink, and denying anyone else from seeing the lamp. The job is supposed to last only 4 weeks, guessing it does the job in month long shifts to allow for some mental recovery. But it doesn't take more than 2 weeks for the cracks begin to show behind Winslow's veneer, despite filling his days with hard, hard labour and monotonous tasks. 

There is much sub-text. Much. There is more to these men than this rock allows to be seen. And that is what the movie is about, not the occasional mermaid fantasy (oh, so THAT'S how you have sex with a mermaid), not Shakespearian level acting references to Poseidon, not the random tentacles slithering in the stormy winds. If the movie soars over all, it is in the performances. Wow, Willem Dafoe is never better than when ranting up a barely comprehensible storm of Sea Captain patois. Pattinson is conversely clear and coherent, but perhaps all more the mad man for it.

P.S. Dude, you NEVER dump your bedpan into the wind, everyone knows that.

31 Days of Colour: Color Out of Space

 2019, Richard Stanley (Hardware) -- Netflix

It didn't take much forethought from Pantone to name Ultra Violet (18-3838) as the color of the year 2018; it had been emerging with neon cyberpunky imagery for years prior. Faces splashed in bright neon lighting, halos glowing in the background reflecting in puddles, fashion photography and car ads all drawing upon spectrums of pinks and purples and colours we might not be able to name. So, to adapt this culturally prevalent image into an HP Lovecraft story about an indescrible colour emerging after a meteor fall is not unexpected. I am absolutely love and simultaneously disturbed by this ability for media and pop culture to decide something that can saturate our brain.

Richard Stanley, infamous for his involvement in the infamous The Island of Dr. Moreau, returns after decades of obscurity with a Nicolas Cage flick, a body horror and psychological piece that is both successful yet... basic? As Kent mentioned, a lot of things just don't make sense, or have any revealed reason to be. Sure, while watching it, you are not likely to care, as the movie is so lustrous, with the said pinks and purples abounding, and Nic Cage going full on Nic. But pick at the threads and it will likely unravel. That is often typical of horror, though, so I am not so bothered.

Nic is Nathan, a farmer (?? we don't really see much beyond the alapacas and some tomatoes) living on the remote land his father left him with his family. His wife has recently recovered from breast cancer and is struggling to keep her financial advisor job going, despite the shitty satellite internet. Daughter Lavinia fashions herself as a Wiccan, son Benny is a stoner, other son Jack Jack is all thick glasses and dinosaurs. Almost immediately after the meteor hits, Nic starts heading where we expect him to, smelling things that he shouldn't smell. 

Rocks from space bring unexpected things; that is to be expected. This one brought something an organism or an intelligence that can only be inferred as malevolent, as it changes the plant & insect life, as it infects their water, as it does unspeakable things to the alpacas. Yet, in the end, after it has run its course, I am not sure what the end goal of the pinky-purple emanations were. But again, I am not sure the movie cares if we know the whats and whys, as long as we enjoyed the ride, and I did.