Serial killer thriller horror is actually fairly entertaining, but does require a temporary abandonment of common sense.
James Purefoy is Spader, a prisoner aboard a transport ship taking a crew of inmates to prison. Unfortunately, the ship runs into trouble and sinks, leaving only a few survivors. Spader is one of the said survivors, as is Rook, a psychopath who kills anyone he sees. The small band of survivors, including Spader, set up stall in the lighthouse which is on the land the survivors reach, and aware that Rook is out there, endeavour to protect themselves.
Lighthouse is a British horror, which generally have a gritty feel to them. This one is no different. It certainly has that hard edge we come to expect from UK horror like 28 Days Later etc.
It also generates a pretty atmospheric facade, showing up moody storms and the isolated lighthouse. Decent work was done here.
The direction is generally pretty clear, and doesn't confuse too much. It does a good job of keeping the pace fairly quick.
In a technical sense though, the dialogue is a slight problem with very murky delivery in places. I am unsure if the actors specifically muddied their lines or if it was just a bad sound system, but some of what is said is decidedly incoherent.
The acting is generally mediocre, with one particularly awful performance from Don Warrington who was hopelessly miscast. The guy is a thesp, not a jibbering wreck as he was asked to play here. He struggles obviously at times, and one can only have sympathy with him.
The rest gamely chug on, with Purefoy being the handsome and charismatic male lead and doing a reasonable job of it.
The last flaw though, with Lighthouse, is that there are just too many daft moments. Too many occasions logic is dismissed and reason flies out of the window. As such this is not exactly the most realistic of horrors but as long as you accept you're not getting common sense, it's passable enough.
Indeed, as long as you can dismiss the stupidity of much of it, it is actually OK and worth a couple of hours of your time. There are certainly much worse efforts out there.
