YMMV / The Lighthouse

• Applicability: The film is either a fascinating Period Piece about a pair of lighthouse keepers who Go Mad from the Isolation during a freak storm, a Cosmic Horror Story about two men cursed by the gods of the sea for violating maritime tradition, or the Mind Screw Dying Dream of a Canadian man dying in the wilderness of frostbite.
• Award Snub: Despite being one of the most acclaimed films of the year, the film was only nominated for one Academy Award: Best Cinematography. While it's obviously something of a niche picture, many people argued that, at the very least, Willem Dafoe should have gotten a Best Supporting Actor nod.
• Awesome Music: The film's trailer and end credits make excellent, haunting use of A.L. Lloyd's rendition of the classic sea shanty "Doodle Let Me Go (Yaller Girls)."
• Crosses the Line Twice: An angry lighthouse keeper suddenly killing a seagull? Disturbing. That same angry lighthouse keeper repeatedly smashing said seagull against concrete like it's Loki and he's the Hulk? Oddly hilarious.
• Fountain of Memes: Both of the film's characters have a high number of memetic, highly quotable lines.
• Genius Bonus: Wake's declaration of "Monkey pump!" isn't just a Non Sequitur, but a reference to an actual piece of nautical slang.
• Heartwarming Moments: It's incredibly minor, but Winslow getting a genuine laugh out of Wake during their second dinner scene is a nice Pet the Dog moment, since it's the only time in the movie where Winslow actually smiles.
  "Curse me if there ain't an old tar's spirit somewheres in ye, lad!"
• He Really Can Act: Not that he hasn't proven this before, but this film really should put to rest any remaining doubts about Robert Pattinson's acting ability.
• Ho Yay: Wake and Winslow have some serious Slap-Slap-Kiss chemistry. At one point, they share a slow dance and both lean in for a kiss, before Winslow snaps out of it and punches Wake.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • Some good-natured ink has been spilled online about the fact that the first trailer features Willem Dafoe repeatedly and ominously growling the phrase "Why'd ya spill yer beans?" and still managing to make it somehow sound menacing.
  • As the second trailer had Wake and Winslow repeatedly say "What?" at times, people ended up quoting Jules Winnfield's frustrations about that word in the comments, as well as also noting that "Stone Cold" Steve Austin would love watching this video.
  • A hilarious scene of Winslow singing and dancing while drunk has been making its ways around Twitter, with subtitles like "leaked footage of how Batman interrogates his rogues gallery".
  • The movie's nautical atmosphere has reminded many viewers of Spongebob for some odd reason, resulting in videos like this and this.
  • The entire "Hark!" scene, to a degree that rivals even Baneposting.
    • "Say it! Yer fond of me lobster!"
    • "If I had a steak right now, hoo boy, a big, juicy steak... I'd fuck it."
    • "Alright, have it your way. I like your cooking."
  • Joking that Dafoe and/or Pattinson (the latter of whom is thought to be a bit of a Cloudcuckoolander in real life) weren't acting when they did this movie; they're just "like that."
  • In retrospective light of the COVID-19 Pandemic, many under stay-at-home orders identified heavily with just how stir-crazy both men get from their own prolonged seclusion, likening the bizarre happenings they encounter to an average day in quarantine.
  • "MONKEY PUMP!", which gave numerous fans a new exclamation of choice for expressing their approval over a good drink.
• Narm: More than a couple people found themselves unintentionally chuckling at Winslow's Filthy Frank-like yells and screams while masturbating to the mermaid hallucination, signaling his Sanity Slippage.
• Narm Charm: Willem Dafoe is essentially channeling the Old Sea Captain from The Simpsons. Winslow even calls him "a parody" toward the end of the movie, but he's so committed to playing Thomas Wake as crusty and salty as possible that he disappears into the role.
• Signature Scene: Wake's "HARK!" monologue, to an almost Watch It for the Meme degree.
• Spiritual Adaptation:
  • Between the setting, Robert Eggers' ear for Antiquated Linguistics, and the (ambiguous) presence of sea monsters/unknowable terror, The Lighthouse might be the best Lovecraft story that Lovecraft never wrote.
  • Being the story of a lighthouse keeper with a guilty conscience descending into utter madness, it pairs well with the song "A Plague of Lighthouse Keepers" by Van der Graaf Generator.
  • A two character piece about passing the time in a desolate location? Sounds like Waiting for Godot.
  • An arrogant character killing a seabird despite being told it was bad luck to do so and in doing so brings grave misfortune on not only the people he's trying to survive with but himself? Rime of the Ancient Mariner anyone?
• Squick: Oh, and so so much of it. From the dead gull corpse oozing its guts into the cistern, to Winslow's frequent masturbatory hallucinations, to Wake's semen dripping through the lighthouse floor grate, the film is chock full of icky moments.

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