My two strongest passions are movies and lighthouses. So it makes sense that my favorite movie is The Lighthouse—the 2019 A24 movie directed by Robert Eggers. My Google calendar, absolutely riddled with unique movie showtime reminders, testifies my love for movies. I’ve even run a movie podcast with my friends since 2019 where we talk about movies. In high school, my friends would watch me open up three tabs in each class: IMdB, RottenTomatoes, and EmpireOnline. Nowadays, I pretty much just pull up Letterboxd. In many ways, I live and breathe movies.
I’m similarly devoted to lighthouses. My first date with my future wife was at the beautiful White River Light Station. During that date, we bonded over our shared love for lighthouses and their keepers. She had recently learned about how lighthouse keepers were some of the first government jobs given to women. This was mostly due to male lighthouse keepers dying, leaving the wife as the capable person to take over.
For me, lighthouses have always been nearby. I was born a twenty-minute walk away from a lighthouse; I’ve felt the lake’s breeze my whole life. Then, in 2019, I saw a promotional still of Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattinson in a movie called The Lighthouse, a story about two men losing sanity on an island. I felt a stirring in my soul. For a while, that image was everything to me. I could hear the seagull’s squawk and feel the salt dried on the rocks. I felt alive when I thought about Willem Dafoe’s craggy face and Robert Pattinson’s bristly mustache. I knew I would love this movie.
On that fateful first date, when we arrived back at my apartment, we watched The Lighthouse on my 2015 MacBook. She laughed and enjoyed the movie. I knew she was the one. About a year after that, we got engaged at the same Whitehall lighthouse and proceeded to visit Little Sable Point, Big Sable Point, and North Breakwater Lighthouse (you can see a snapshot of that in my post calvin bio picture). Soon, we are vacationing to Prince Edward Island to see some of its 63 lighthouses. One day, I’ll watch The Lighthouse—in a lighthouse— during a storm.
It’s safe to say my obsession continues to solidify and shows no signs of stopping. During a particularly strong craze, I bought five The Lighthouse posters. Maybe by breaking them down, you’ll get a glimpse into why I love Robert Egger’s multi-faceted masterpiece:
This piece, “The Lighthouse Keeper,” was done by Jakub Rozalski. He was “inspired by the amazing aesthetics and atmosphere of “The lighthouse”, the upcoming movie by Robert Eggers. The trailer was so cool, that I simply had to paint something in that Lovecraft-ish atmosphere 🙂 My version of the story, where one of the men turn out to have a very dark secret. He tried to isolate himself from the world, but not everything went as he planned.” Rozalski imagined a whole story inspired just by the trailer. Envisioning “The Lighthouse with a werewolf” is a delightful nightmare treat.
JohnnyUtah’s “Gameboy Edition” works as gif and poster. It’s a joy to see the retro aesthetic—and even better to visualize The Lighthouse as a GameBoy adventure.
Ryan Gajda’s stunning poster reminds me that The Lighthouse will always be peak comedy. The stark yellow and the Guys & Dolls-esque color scheme makes me picture a Lighthouse two-hander play. The real question is—would the actors fart live? Willem Dafoe happily hints he did. Regardless, Gajda’s work shines.
Glen Brogan’s piece causes me to lean in. In the darkness, there are details and doom for the peering observer.
OffTrack Outlet writes in his bio, “My creative passion is deeply rooted in vintage charm and classic aesthetics.” This piece gorgeously captures The Lighthouse’s eerie atmosphere in spooky detail. It even includes the rarely mentioned actors Valeriia Karaman (who plays the mermaid) and Logan Hawkes (the haunting, true Ephraim Winslow).
In the end, The Lighthouse was a gift given to me by Robert Eggers, the cast, and the crew. This movie came into theaters when I needed a reminder of what I loved. More specifically, how I loved. And what’s better than that?

Isaac graduated Calvin in 2019 studying English, secondary education and recently finished being an English teacher for the past few years. He’s currently a resident director at Hope College while also taking classes so he can become an art teacher. Isaac loves movies and lighthouses more than most things.