Netflix’s Stranger Things is treading into cosmic horror territory for its second season next month, one of the show’s co-creators told Entertainment Weekly today, so get ready for things to get bigger and scarier. Like, to Lovecraftian proportions. “There’s an H.P. Lovecraft sort of approach,” said Matt Duffer.

H.P. Lovecraft

Whether they be adaptations or original screenplays, cosmic horror is very difficult to adapt for the big screen because of its structure and concepts, which focus on the surrounding universe, something that isn’t what an audience would typically want out of a scary movie.

the Duffer Brothers

Mandy is a film after my own heart. All of this is accomplished in the first twenty minutes or so, and then the film deteriorates as it tries to put together a plot. Unfortunately the creative team behind Mandy just doesn’t have much to add to our nascent 21st century cosmic horror genre.

The Lighthouse is Lovecraftian; hell, it even has its own eldritch abomination. But it isn’t Cthulu or Dagon — despite the movie’s similarities with the short story, Dagon. The Lighthouse itself is an eldritch monstrosity. It is the oldest thing in the film, and for all we know, it’s always been there.

Perhaps the biggest and most overt bit of Lovecraftian horror though is the lighthouse itself. Early on in the movie, Winslow becomes curious and fascinated by what Thomas could possibly be doing when he sneaks up to the lighthouse’s lamp in the night.

In the film, the two characters are often seen getting drunk on kerosene. Pattinson told Esquire that he got so drunk to play these scenes that he essentially blacked out.

Is it based on a true story? According to Eggers, the plot of the film is very loosely based on an old Welsh story about a pair of lighthouse keepers. The Welsh tale featured two keepers called Thomas, the same as the characters in the film.

Eggers pointed out that actual lighthouse keepers—or “wickies,” in the parlance of the time—would have likely been eating more varied meals. “The Lighthouse Keepers’ Manual gives them 200 pounds of pork, 100 pounds of beef, and also some rice and beans or peas,” he said.

Winslow represents Prometheus, a Titan and trickster figure, who defies the gods (Wake’s character) by stealing fire (represented by the light of the lighthouse). Wake mentions that it’s bad luck to kill a seagull because of a superstition stating that seagulls contain the souls of sailors.

The second section “Time passes” gives a sense of time passing, absence, and death. Ten years pass, during which the First World War begins and ends. Mrs Ramsay dies, as do two of her children – Prue dies from complications of childbirth, and Andrew is killed in the war.

On the surface, Robert Eggers’ The Lighthouse is a story about two lighthouse keepers driven to insanity. However, nothing is at seems in this film. From there, the film displays the men’s slow descent into madness as they become trapped on the island. …

Paranoia and psychosis eventually set in. Mermaids and monsters appear to Ephraim. Then after some drinking, farting, fighting, masturbating, and murder, the film ends with Ephraim being eaten by seagulls.

In The Lighthouse, Robert Pattinson plays a 19th-century lighthouse keeper who quickly takes to getting drunk on kerosene with his boss, a rowdy ex-sailor portrayed by Willem Dafoe.