10 Horror Movie Concepts That Should NEVER Work (But Do)

You stick Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattinson on an island together, entirely in black and white, with a weirdly humorous script and a mermaid that has a giant vulva on her tail, and you call that a movie? Good. Good for you.

The Lighthouse is an entirely bizarre slow-burner horror that pushes the limits of what we expect from cerebral, psychological titles. There’s barely any body-horror to be found here, few jumpscares or dramatic frenetic scores; instead what we have is an uncomfortable, claustrophobic experience anchored by stellar performances from our leading men.

You’d think that nobody would want to watch two fisherman slowly descend into madness amongst a dizzying atmosphere of homoeroticism, self-hatred and alcoholism - especially if at random points throughout the atmosphere is broken with fart and poop jokes. I couldn’t wrap my head around how that concept could work until I gave the movie a chance.

Somebody smarter than me will be able to spell out to you what makes the mood, the script and the performances tie together to make something great when that should never be the case. It just…works. Don’t ask me how, but it does.