The foghorn might be the litmus test.

Throughout The Lighthouse, a low, persistent horn moans in the background—not so much a warning to the boats that might be passing by the rocky shore, but more of a pronouncement of doom on the two weather-beaten men charged with keeping the lamp. If you find the foghorn to be a maddening, showy piece of sound design in the movie’s first 10 minutes, The Lighthouse is going to be a long haul. But if it strikes you as an ingenious, atmospheric touch—one of the many ways sound and image are employed to make you feel as if seawater is seeping into your own skin—then The Lighthouse will be a cinematic sailor’s yarn you won’t soon forget.

www.larsenonfilm.com/the-lighthouse