Lighthouse (2000/I)

Director:

Simon Hunter

Writers:

Simon Hunter (writer)
Graeme Scarfe (story)

Release Date:

9 August 2000 (France)

Genre:

Horror | Thriller

Tagline:

Evil lurks in the light.

Plot:

A prison ship on its way to a remote island prison runs aground on rocks and sinks. Mixed survivors of cons and prison guards struggle ashore...

Plot Keywords:

Rock | Severed Head | Night | Lighthouse | Person On Fire

Awards:

2 wins & 3 nominations

Cast

James Purefoy	...	Richard Spader
Rachel Shelley	...	Dr. Kirsty McCloud
Christopher Adamson	...	Leo Rook
Paul Brooke	...	Captain Campbell
Don Warrington	...	Prison Officer Ian Goslet
Christopher Dunne	...	Chief Prison Officer O'Neil (as Chris Dunne)
Bob Goody	...	Weevil
Pat Kelman	...	Spoons
Peter McCabe	...	Prison Officer Hopkins
Norman Mitchell	...	Brownlow
Howard Attfield	...	Sykes
Jason Round	...	Spitfield
Stuart Callaghan	...	Ship's Mate
Yolande Davis	...	Young Prison Officer
Sarah Wateridge	...	McCloud's Mother

Also Known As:

Dead of Night (USA) (video title)

MPAA:

Rated R for strong horror violence/gore and some language.

Runtime:

95 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White | Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Iceland:16 | Finland:K-16 (cut) (1999) | Netherlands:16 | France:-12 | Germany:18 | South Korea:18 | UK:15 | USA:R

Filming Locations:

Cornwall, England, UK

Company:

British Screen Productions

Trivia:

Last film role of Norman Mitchell.

Quotes:

Dr. Kirsty McCloud: The only pleasure in his life came from his lab. The hobby became a job, the job became an obsession and the obsession turned into this

There's hope yet for slasher films in the 21st century...

(***1/2 out of *****) This is a bit derivative (mainly of the 1972 thriller "Tower of Evil"), but it's still decent. It's a British horror flick set mostly in and around a lighthouse located on a small, rocky island. When a ship transporting prisoners smashes onto the rocks and sinks, the survivors are forced to take refuge in the island's lighthouse, unaware that one of the prisoners, a brutal serial killer named Leo Rook, escaped his cell long before the accident and is already there waiting for them. Finding the headless bodies of the lighthouse workers in a closet, it doesn't take the survivors (including two prisoners chained together and a third convicted murderer who says he's innocent) long to figure out who's stranded there with them. The second half of this pretty fast-moving chiller concerns all of the remaining guards and prisoners (and one female psychologist) working together to set traps for Rook and/or to keep from being slaughtered. This is pretty bloody, but there's also a fair amount of suspense, particularly in the last half. Rook (Christopher Adamson) is a great, scary villain -- tall, vicious, and, most important, silent (he doesn't speak one word of dialogue throughout the entire movie, which is much more effective than some of these cinema slashers, a la Freddy Krueger and Chucky, who can't keep their wisecracking mouths shut.) Though a bit prolonged and ridiculous in my opinion, the climactic battle between hero and heroine (James Purefoy and Rachel Shelley) and Rook, while dangling from a fraying, burning rope at the top of the lighthouse in the pouring rain, is very intense and gruesome, particularly when Purefoy has to grip Shelley by her hair to keep her from falling and damn near scalping her in the process. All in all, this is a solid, contemporary thriller that offers some hope for horror movies in the 21st century. If it had been made in Hollywood, you could expect five or six sequels.

HIGHLIGHT: The ship's captain (Paul Brooke) finds himself trapped in a bathroom stall with Rook, who's oblivious to the captain's presence, on the other side. Without giving away too much, this is a very intense and well-directed scene, worthy of De Palma, where the most significant deciding factor between life and death is a can of air freshener.