7 Creepy Lighthouses Featured In Horror Films

Ten points for anyone who guessed this film would be on the list.

After Robert Eggers gained popularity with his folk horror, The Witch, fans were delighted in 2019 with the release of his equally spooky New England-based film, The Lighthouse.

As mentioned before, lighthouses remind us of a bygone era, and lighthouse keepers more so. Many of the lighthouses left in the world have been automated and the need for keepers has dwindled. This makes it a dying profession that is becoming lost to the old world.

This now obsolete job, and the building it is tied to, work well in the film as they link to the idea of old, forgotten things. This is utilized by Wake telling Wenslow old folk tales and myths about the sea.

Vicious mermaids, ominous seabirds, and the vengeful sea god, Poseidon, begin to haunt the film as the ancient tales become a reality for the two keepers.

As Wenslow is denied permission to go to the top of the lighthouse, a mystery begins to build around what could be in there. A mystery that becomes Lovecraftian in its nature.

The design of a lighthouse’s bulb looks almost alien. The staggered, shining glass seems otherworldly, as does the deadly mercury that powers it. This alien feeling, along with the New England setting and the addition of tentacled monsters from the deep, sends The Lighthouse in the surprising direction of cosmic horror – bringing harmless folk tales into a new era of existential angst that we deal with in our modern day world.

An angst that surrounds a harmless-looking lighthouse.