8 Horror Movies With Deeper Meanings Than You Realise
1. It's A Riff On Greek Mythology - The Lighthouse
Now, I'm not claiming anyone didn't realise there was a deeper meaning to The Lighthouse considering just how maddeningly cryptic most of its narrative is. Entwining two lighthouse keepers around a barebones story that feels more experience than it does actual movie, The Lighthouse is a dizzying combination of grotty wanks, hilarious insults, and seagull smashing like nothing else you'll see. And in the process, it hides its true motivations under a thick layer of salt and seawater.
Director Robert Eggers has continually reinforced that he designed the movie to be open to interpretation, but there are parallels that inspired the piece as a whole. Namely: Greek mythology surrounding Proteus and Prometheus.
Prometheus, just as Ephraim Winslow does by witnessing the light in all its glory at the end of the film, stole fire from the Gods - only to be punished by birds picking out his insides. Eerily familiar, right? And Proteus is a shape-shifting sea God who is brother to Triton and son to Poseidon, the very fellows our grizzled, sea-worn man in charge Thomas Wake calls upon to curse Ephraim in a fit of rage when his cooking is questioned.
The whole piece feels like a rumination on masculinity, so to throw these two highly charged, masculine characters from legend together to see what madness they can inflict on each other in Eggers's choice setting - that of a giant phallus - seems fitting.