Winter. The season of snow, ice, and cold. The perfect time to curl up in a blanket and stare out at the gently falling snowflakes. But not if you live in Florida, where, despite a couple of cold snaps, there really isn’t anything winter-y about the winter here. To cope with this sad state of affairs, I love consuming media that puts me in a winter state of mind. I love reading and watching things that feature ice and snow, as I am sure many other people do.
But the thing about me is that I don’t look for cozy winter reads and watches. I tend to lean in the really messed-up direction. Instead of swoony Christmas romances or beloved classics, I devour books about being trapped on Everest in a snowstorm or writers going missing in the woods. And this winter, I have found my new favorite snowy double feature: the movie The Lighthouse and season one of the TV show The Terror.
Let’s start with The Lighthouse, which was a film that had been on my watchlist for about three years. The first time I heard about it, I was instantly intrigued. Directed by Robert Eggers in 2019, The Lighthouse follows two lighthouse keepers trapped at their post during an intense storm as they are slowly driven insane. It stars two incredible actors: Robert Pattinson and Willem Dafoe. Intense, character-driven movies are amazing, but I have to be in the right headspace to watch them. So, this year, I decided to sit down and finally watch this movie. And I loved it so much.
Firstly, Pattinson and Dafoe are, of course) remarkable. Both of them are able to cram so much tension and bitterness into their performances as their characters Winslow and Wake, respectively. Their characters switch back and forth from loving to despising each other, almost at random, and I believed both states.
Another thing that makes the movie great is its design. It is shot in black and white and in a square aspect ratio, which makes the edges of the frame fade into the screen. It creates a creeping, claustrophobic tone. It also has limited music, with the most prominent sound of the film being a jolting foghorn. All of this makes the viewer feel like they too are marooned with Winslow and Wake on the island of the lighthouse.
While this film may not be classified as a winter film, I consider it one. Why? Well, the first reason is because I watched it in winter; ergo, a winter movie. But there is more to it than that. The movie’s major theme is how isolation and claustrophobia destroy people, and isolation is a big part of winter. As the sun sets faster and the air chills, people spend more time indoors and can develop cabin fever (as depicted in The Lighthouse). Something about watching two men go out of their minds reminds me that it could always be worse.
Then there’s The Terror, which I actually watched before The Lighthouse. The Terror is a show from 2018 based on a real historical event, where two ships left England on an Arctic expedition and never returned. But the first season introduces a new threat in addition to the harsh ice and interpersonal conflict: a terrifying supernatural monster.
One of the show’s biggest strengths is the way it spends a lot of time with the characters, learning about their personalities and backstories. This means that even though the audience has an idea of what will happen to all of them, we still feel invested in their survival.
The show starts pretty slow, ratcheting up the tension very carefully, which makes every single moment feel intense. There were so many points while watching The Terror where I was holding my breath and trying to figure out what could possibly happen next, and I was wrong every time.
Season one of The Terror has several similarities to The Lighthouse: it has a heavy focus on characters, the harshness of nature is a motif, and they are both winter-coded. They also both feature very compelling throughlines of characters on the brink, where the audience gets to watch these men struggle to survive the exterior and interior circumstances.
But the biggest difference between the two of them is that The Terror has a strange sense of hope. While Winslow and Wake spend most of The Lighthouse trying to tear each other apart, most people in The Terror just want to help each other survive. The moments of brotherhood and care feel hard-earned, but they give humanity a desolate landscape of snow and misery.
The Lighthouse and The Terror are my new favorite winter watches. Though they might seem like depressing watches, they bring me an odd feeling of catharsis and joy. They are not traditional “comforting media,” but they are comforting to me. As the weather gets colder these next few months, check them out! They might become your favorites too.