Ephraim Winslow Kills a Seagull
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Warning: this entry contains minor spoilers for the 2019 film The Lighthouse
About
Ephraim Winslow Kills a Seagull refers to a memorable scene from the 2019 psychological horror film The Lighthouse in which Robert Pattinson's character Ephraim Winslow violently kills a seagull by bashing it against a water cistern. Online, the scene has been often referenced in memes by movie fans and used in humorous edits.
Origin
On October 18th, 2019, psychological film The Lighthouse premiered in the United States.[1] In one scene of the film, character Ephraim Winslow (also known as Thomas Howard; portrayed by actor Robert Pattinson), violently kills a one-eyed seagull by grabbing it by its neck and violently bashing it against a water cistern (scene shown below).
Following the release of the film, the scene gained immediate recognition with the viewers online, with posts about the scene being made by users on Twitter, 4chan, Facebook and other online platforms. For example, an October 24th, 2019, Tweet[2] by @phntmthrd received over 80 likes (shown below).
robert pattinson to that seagull in the lighthouse pic.twitter.com/ORVT56CeLs
— jonah (@phntmthrd) October 25, 2019
Spread
In the following months, the scene grew to become a popular reference in memes online, with posts appearing on Twitter, Facebook and other sites. For example, a January 15th tweet[3] by @disasterframe (A Frame Before Disaster) received over 410 retweets and 2,100 likes (shown below, left).
On February 17th, a Facebook[4] page Robert Pattinson killing a gull to various songs was created. On that day, the group posted the video[5] in which the scene was accompanied by "BFG Division" track by Mick Gordon from the soundtrack of the 2016 video game Doom. The video received over 820 reactions and 900 shares in eight days.
In the following days, the group posted multiple edits of the scene in which it was accompanied by various songs such as "I Ran" by A Flock of Seagulls, "No Love" by Death Grips, "Flamingo" by Kero Kero Bonito and others. Multiple of the videos posted in the group have been widely circulated on Facebook in the following days, with the group attracting over 30,000 followers in eight days.
Various Examples
Search Interest
External References
[1] Wikipedia – The Lighthouse
[2] Twitter – @phntmthrd
[3] Twitter – @disasterframe
[4] Facebook – Robert Pattinson killing a gull to various songs
[5] Facebook – Robert Pattinson killing a gull to various songs