The Lighthouse Script Analysis
Today, we’re diving deep into Robert & Max Eggers' chilling screenplay for The Lighthouse (2019), a psychological horror brought to life by Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattinson.
📖 This A24 film is more than just a surreal fever dream; it's a great example of screenwriting. We’ll break down the structure, formatting, unique dialogue, symbolism, and themes of the screenplay that helped define Robert Eggers as a genre all his own.
💡 What you’ll learn:
– How The Lighthouse evolved from Edgar Allan Poe’s unfinished story
– The genius of Eggers' period-accurate dialect and formatting quirks
– Why this screenplay breaks the "rules" (and why it works)
– A deep dive into the film’s haunting monologues and unreliable reality
– How Dafoe and Pattinson’s performances are rooted in what’s on the page
🎥 Directed by Robert Eggers (The Witch, The Northman, Nosferatu), The Lighthouse is a claustrophobic two-hander that blends mythology, madness, and maritime misery — and the screenplay is just as mesmerizing as the finished film.
The Screenplay Lab is hosted by screenwriter Jeff Barker.
⭐Podcast Playlist: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLvT9-S4Lm7z6C-j3BlMTt8YY8la9GUaNn&si=-gfPKFSyl5k05VWE
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There are screenplay breakdowns on:
Anora (Mikey Madison) by Sean Baker
Nosferatu (Lily Rose Depp, Bill Skarsgard) by Robert Eggers
Heretic (Hugh Grant) by Scott Beck and Brian Woods
A Complete Unknown (Timothee Chalamet, Edward Norton, Elle Fanning) by James Mangold
The Substance (Demi Moore, Margaret Qualley) by Coralie Fargeat
A Real Pain (Kieran Culkin) by Jesse Eisenberg
Conclave (Ralph Fiennes, Stanley Tucci, John Lithgow) by Peter Straughan
The Brutalist (Adrien Brody, Felicity Jones, Guy Pearce) by Brady Corbet and Mona Fastvold
Us (Lupita Nyong'o) by Jordan Peele (with Curry Barker interview)
Waves (Sterling K. Brown, Taylor Russell, Kelvin Harrison Jr) by Trey Edward Shults
Babygirl (Nichole Kidman, Harris Dickinson) by Halina Reijn
The Lighthouse (William Dafoe, Robert Pattinson) By Robert Eggers and Max Eggers
CHAPTERS:
00:00 - The Screenplay Lab
00:43 - The Lighthouse
01:42 - William Dafoe and Robert Pattinson
02:04 - Max Eggers
03:08 - Robert Eggers
04:44 - Screenplay Development
05:53 - Language and Dialect
06:34 - Production
07:58 - Loglines
08:28 - Statistics
08:42 - Character Introduction
09:46 - Drawings in the Screenplay
10:10 - Character Names
10:32 - ALL CAPS
11:05 - Scene Headings
11:18 - Spacing Out Dialogue
13:37 - White Space
14:26 - Jeff Barker
15:03 - Star of the Show
15:08 - Direction on the Page
15:56 - Camera
16:17 - Angle On
16:28 - Images
16:39 - Hold
17:14 - Dialogue
18:03 - Monologues
20:49 - Darkness, Shadow
22:02 - Art on the Page
22:50 - Aside to Readers
23:52 - Laughter
24:23 - Cinematic Writing
25:18 - Symbolism
28:08 - Words on the Screen
28:23 - Conclusion