Its first act is haunting and slow. It staggers maniacally into the second act. And it gets too abstract and "weird-for-the-sake-of-weird" in the third.

Dafoe's performance is stellar, mind you. But he is basically just playing the Sea Captain from The Simpsons. And Pattinson's accent and characterization are somewhat less convincing.

And it all gets to be too much. The supposedly claustrophobic aspect ratio didn't add to it. More of a detractor. The droning soundscape. The bare cinematography. Things get relentlessly tiresome for about 20 minutes too long.

As far as recent spooky lighthouse movies go, I actually prefer The Vanishing to this one.