User reviews

I bought this movie at my local video store the other day for the whooping sum of 94 cents. I figured I could`nt lose. About 10 minutes in I was thinking that I had thrown away 94 cents and was about to eject it from the VCR and throw it in the trash. However, it began to show some promise in the thrills and suspense area so I continued to watch and ended up very pleased to add this film to my collection. Even though there is nothing original about this movie (psycho killer stalks people on an island with large knife) it is well made and well acted by a cast of unknowns. At times the suspense is riveting. I would recommend this movie for at least a one time watch.

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.

Visually it looked great, but it fell into madman hacks people to death in unimaginative ways with no suspense or caring for characters crap video territory very quickly. It's all been done before and a million times better in loads of other straight to video slasher shockers. Tony Imi was too good for them!

I don't why but I got this for 50p the another day, so what the hell give a watch, thinking it haunted Light house.

It turns out it was more of slasher movie,

Well I don't know to really make out of this, it didn't hate but I didn't love either, i thougth it flowed,

There were some bloody deaths in this movie but I didn't find him scary at all but I did enjoy those very tense scenes were some were hiding from him.

If you may seem a little funny but the whole way to predicable, you know how the movie was going to end.

4 out of 10

This is the sort of film that gives horror films a bad name, not as a result of graphic violence or for exploitation of women. BUT simply becuase its such a rubbish film. Please Simon (Writer & Director - so you have to take responsibility) think really long and hard before attempting another film.

Why is the most dangerous killer in the UK being taken to an island prison on a rust bucket ship with just ten others. Why has thew ship only apparently got a crew of 1 ! Why don't they just fly him to this prison - we see a helicopter later in the film !

How come the killer manages to slip past people in the lighthouse - there's one stairs yet he manages to appear on different floors, by-passing those above or below.

Even though people are killed by having there throats cuts there's never any blood stains on the floor - just on light bulbs or toilet bowls

Why is everyone so stupid ... I'll run away for ten seconds then not be able to find my way back, even though I have a torch and a radio. And the island is illuminated by the lighthouse light. Instead I'll stumble on to the boat that the killer has hidden.

Lighthouse (AKA: Dead of Night) is directed by Simon Hunter and written by Graeme Scarfe. It stars James Purefoy, Rachel Shelley, Christopher Adamson, Don Warrington & Paul Brooke. The plot sees a prison ship on its way to the remote Marshelsea Island Prison run aground and sunk. The survivors, a mixture of cons and prison staff, struggle ashore a tiny island that's only function is to house a lighthouse. Thanking their lucky stars for surviving the wreck it's not long before they realise their luck has quickly run out. For psychotic serial killer Leo Rook has made it ashore before them and he has no intention of letting any of them survive the night.

Funded by Arts Council money, Hunter's movie took some time to make it on to the screen. What began in 1994 ended with a video release in the US (as Dead of Night) in 2000 and then two years later it got a limited theatrical release in the UK. As a slasher movie, and a generic one at that, Lighthouse doesn't veer from the norm. However, it's still a very tidy effort that gains the maximum impact from its truly eerie setting. This dark and rocky little island that is intermittently lit by the Lighthouse is perfect for stalk and slash shenanigans. And so it proves. Yes the characters are too one note and not given the best of dialogue to churn out, but for its look and nicely handled set pieces the film ends up better than average.

The cast, in spite of said bad dialogue, are more than adequate, particularly the game Shelley and the enjoyable Brooke. However, it's Adamson as nut-case Rook that leaves the best impression. As a killer Rook is really just a British version of Jason Vorhees or Michael Myers, but with his calm unflustered movements about the island, resplendent in bizarre white shoes, Rook manages to terrify and intrigue in equal measure. Why he is the way he is is not known, but this adds to the air of mystery that surrounds the man who likes to collect heads for decoration purposes! Of the set pieces, the finale is noisily OTT but works well, even if Hunter's use of slow-mo smacks of pointless pretencions. But it's with the quiet tension filled scenes where Lighthouse earns its spurs, one in the bathroom is as good as it gets for this type of film, while another involving a lifeboat down on the sand is also hold your breath enjoyable. Shot by Tony Imi on location in Cornwall & Hastings, the film is also visually appealing for those who like a grainy noir like sheen to their horror. With Hunter clearly in that frame of mind judging by his nice usage of the off kilter shot. While Debbie Wiseman's surging score has a very 50s feel to it.

It's safe to say that anyone looking for something new in this now tired of horror sub-genres will be disappointed. But the look, the feel, the setting and no shortage of the claret; more than makes up for its adherence to genre staples. 6.5/10

Could probably be summed up as reasonably entertaining, predictable nonsense.

Every scene moving one to the other was so predictable. In fact you could say everything that happened could have been foretold within the first half hour.

It would be wrong to judge the acting as there was none, but in fairness the film did not need to be acted out. Rather than acting, basic motions were more than adequate given the plot, the location and the fact that it was pitch dark all of the time.

However, it did entertain in a fashion. Whether this was down to the predictability of the storyline or whether it did really entertain I'm not sure.

I'm glad I neither specifically paid to see at the movies nor paid for it at the local DVD hire shop (watched it on a TV movie channel). But why do I still have this weird notion that I quite enjoyed it??

Very disappointing foray into slasher movie territory which misses one central pre-requisite for the genre, towit, if you're going to abandon your plot and characters you have to have blood and ingenious visceral carnage by the bucket-load. Which this film clearly does not. Bar one Argento-esque scene in which the ships Captain is stalked by the sloth-like killer in a toilet, the rest of the set-pieces are poorly constructed, badly lit and downright tedious. I hate to admit I actually fell asleep during this one (I can't imagine that happening during the best horror exploitation pics of Fulci, Deodata and the like.) The crashing soundtrack doesn't help our comprehension of the lame brain plot either. And is it just me who found the killer thoroughly unthreatening to look at? (maybe he should have worn a hockey mask or something....) Has all the directorial style of an end of term film project on a limited Arts Council grant, to which I have but one closing comment: must try harder in the future!

LIGHTHOUSE

(USA: Dead of Night)

Aspect ratio: 1.85:1

Sound format: Dolby Digital

Inmates and officials from a sunken prison ship become stranded on a storm-lashed lighthouse-island 300 miles from the UK coastline, along with a monstrous psychopath (Christopher Adamson) who stalks and kills them, one by one.

Writer-director Simon Hunter's powerhouse shocker - an award winner at movie festivals in Luxembourg and Rome - combines the setting of TOWER OF EVIL (1972) with the multiplex-friendly aesthetic of Wes Craven's SCREAM (1996), and improves on its source material in every significant way. James Purefoy (RESIDENT EVIL) and Rachel Shelley (CRUISE OF THE GODS) lead a small but talented cast of newcomers and veterans (including Paul Brooke and Don Warrington) as a motley bunch of hot-heads and cowards, forced to band together in a desperate attempt to survive the killer's rampage.

The film's narrative is linked by a series of Hitchcockian set-pieces (a potential victim cowering in a toilet stall as the killer lurks outside; a terrified character trapped in a boat with a two-way radio which could betray his presence to the prowling maniac at any moment; and two prisoners chained together at the wrist who are forced to make a terrible decision during an unexpected encounter with the bloodthirsty killer), culminating in a terrific climax at the top of the lighthouse, where Good and Evil collide in a welter of stuntwork and visual effects. Hunter emphasizes suspense and atmosphere over violence, and his clever script maintains an impressive degree of logic, isolating potential victims through careful calculation rather than narrative contrivance. Lovely, evocative music score by Debbie Wiseman, too.

Incredibly, despite being co-financed by BSkyB and the Arts Council of England, and despite a warm reception at various festival screenings, LIGHTHOUSE remained on the shelf for three years before creeping into UK cinemas to lukewarm reviews and poor business. It fared little better in the US, where the movie played briefly in theaters under a new title (DEAD OF NIGHT) before being consigned to video hell. It's commercial history notwithstanding, this is a small classic, ripe for rediscovery.

Even though Lighthouse doesn't exactly deliver a story that anyone would consider as original (some people are stalked by a merciless serial killer on a deserted lighthouse), it is a surprisingly watchable movie. Director Hunter adds nice twists to "classic" stalk-scenes, and the movie is chilling right from the beginning. The killer surely is a creepy figure and possibly makes you gasping for breath sometimes. The only letdown for horror-buffs like me is the fact that there's not much gore in this movie - but the few bloody scenes are staged very well and surely not for the squeamish. All in all a chilling and entertaining thriller: 7 out of 10.

Unbelievable that a movie like this has been produced in 1999; if it had been from the sixties I wouldn't have been surprised at all. It is full of cliches, it is terrible predictable (I watched it together with a friend and told him exactly who would be killed and in which order by the time they arrived at the lighthouse!) and awful music - completely identical to the kind they used to use in the earliest horror movies I can remember. I really can't think of any reason why someone might want to see this movie.

It's not that this is a terribly awful film, but it would take at least some effort to view it at this point. I tried numerous download sites, checked websites after i read favourable right ups. It is not worth the effort.

A sub standard, weak, predictable and at time plain awful plot, bad acting, no real threat. Save your time and do something more productive.

I would recommend that rather than watching this you spend the time looking for other, better, films to watch.

If you've somehow stumbled upon this title, the odds are you will find another one that's much better in no time.

Don't see this movie. I stopped watching after 15 minutes or so... This is terrible acting, there is no story and I couldn't figure out what was happening and why anyway. Just don't do it.

First there was Michael Myers. Then came Jason. Followed by Freddy Krueger.

And now we meet Leo Rook, a psychotic killer who likes white shoes and to collect heads. On his way to prison he escapes from a boat which later crushes into a rock and sinks. A few survivors swim ashore on an island with a Lighthouse, unknowing that someone is already waiting for them.

Though an unknown cast and director, this is a very scary and most of all good movie.

Where do you begin to summarise a film like this? The start I guess. Oh wait - there isn't one. You know you're in for a rough time when a film's opening drops you into a scene that feels like you've somehow already missed 10 minutes. Who are these people? Where are they and what hell are they doing? The director/screenwriter doesn't bother with any of that. They're people on a boat. With a bad man. Who escapes. That's about all you're getting folks. What then follows is some of the worst direction, acting, editing and photography you will ever have the misfortune to witness. It's truly mind numbing that a film with such horrendous technical deficiencies could ever pass muster. They should have dropped the final cut of this mess into a vat of acid and tossed the director in after it. That would have spared us this nonsense and any other ideas Hunter may have in his head.

0/10

LIGHTHOUSE is a British slasher film that had the misfortune to come out at the tail-end of the 1990s, which means that straight away the look of the film is incredibly dated. Attempts at style in the direction are cheesy and the camera angles are sometimes wrong, somehow making the movie look cheaper than it actually is. The story, too, is nothing particularly special; this is very ordinary stuff, standard slasher fare with nothing to distinguish it from a million others.

It's a shame, because there are occasional flashes of brilliance here, some wonderfully-shot set-pieces which show you what this could have been had more effort been made. The extensive bathroom set-piece involving Paul Brooke's character is without a doubt the highlight of the movie and I just wish the rest of it could have been of the same calibre. Despite some gory murders, the kills are all predictable for the most part and it somewhat inevitably descends into ridiculousness at the climax.

Still, you could do a lot worse than LIGHTHOUSE, and the aforementioned bathroom set-piece shows that this is occasionally a cut above the rest. James Purefoy makes for a dependable action hero and Rachel Shelley isn't bad either as the female lead who isn't always a damsel-in-distress. Watch out for RISING DAMP's Don Warrington in an amusing minor role as a prison officer.

It's a dark, stormy and foggy night when a ship transporting prisoners sinks. The survivors (doctors, officers, boat crew and jailbirds) crawl to the shore of a desolate island, find refuge inside a large lighthouse and have to fight off one of the escapees, who happens to be a psychotic killer. He burns up a rescue boat and the communication equipment and stalks the characters with a machete.

High-pedigree slasherama from England has the novely of above-average production values and acting and some well-done suspense scenes to go along with some pretty grisly slayings (neck slashings and decapitations being the killer's forte). They just forgot much of a plot, the b/w flashbacks linking the killer to one of the characters doesn't work (what a coincidence!) and it's all so dark, miserable and rainy the whole time. A few good set pieces, but a sense of humor and better-developed characters would have helped.

Score: 4 out of 10

LIGHTHOUSE (dead of night) is without question one of the best thrillers to come out in years. How this gem fell through the cracks I'll never understand. (Though in the states, blaming A-pix for it's forced, inappropriate title and amateurish B-grade box art is a good place to start!) Perhaps the film is just too sophisticated for the slasher set and too gruesome and effective for thriller fans. It deserves a genre all it's own. above all else it exists as an exercise in suspense and a very successful one at that. Sporting vividly realized, even brilliantly conceived scenes of terror visually reminiscent of Argento's best and pacing that could only be compared to that of the young John Carpenter, LIGHTHOUSE should be seen by anyone the least bit interested in Horror or good film making. One of my favorite scenes involves a flashback/dream sequence so beautifully composed it evokes the Great German expressionists in it's vague shadowy ambiguity. (When was the last time you rewinded a scene in a horror movie to watch it over again?...Sad isn't it?!) Before the film ends, it miraculously transforms genre yet again into full throttle action as the heroes find themselves dangling outside the lighthouse in a final showdown with the madman. The background sets in these scenes (orange grey skies, endless ocean) are as glorious as something out of old Hollywood or the films of the great James Whale. How teenage dreck is released into theaters while brilliance is shoved into a videobox with a generic skull on it is anyone's guess. This film deserved the same release as other harder to classify, Adult genre films like THE CUBE, RAVENOUS and EXISTENZ. Expect to find LIGHTHOUSE in years to come referred to as an overlooked classic and expect it's Director to be on the forefront of the next wave of horror.

A dark, scarier-than-average slasher film with excellent cinematography and good acting to set it apart from the average ripper gypper. Leo Rook is a mad killer in the Michael Myers mold. He doesn't wear a mask but he's silent and violent and chops everyone he meets to pieces. When the ship that's transporting Rook and a cargo of other convicts to a high-security prison runs aground during a thick fog, the madman escapes in a lifeboat to stalk and murder the stranded prisoners and crew in and around a dark, isolated old lighthouse. The characters are by-the-numbers stereotypes, including the drunken old captain, the handsome young convict who Didn't Really Do It, the frightened black guy, and the beautiful young woman with a troubled past who is now the resident expert on serial killers. The killer is kept at a distance from the viewer and is an effectively scary psycho. The main problem with the film is the trapped characters' repeated demonstrations of extreme stupidity as they foolishly isolate themselves from the group even when they know there's a diabolical mad killer waiting to bump them all off. It's frustrating watching a group that includes hardened criminals and trained prison guards who never think of the "safety in numbers" concept. Every time something needs to be done in order to make any attempt at escaping, contacting help or capturing the killer, it is taken for granted that somebody will have to go sneaking off into the darkness by himself to carry it out. This short-sightedness and general lack of clear thought on the part of the cast makes it awfully convenient for Leo to decapitate them one by one with his handy axe and machete. I still don't know how the grouchy character named MacNeil managed to get himself separated from the others. Still, even with this glaring flaw in its logic, LIGHTHOUSE is often very suspenseful and the stalking sequences are as good as any in the slasher genre. The killer collects the severed heads of his victims, but when he kills the black guy he decides to settle for simply stabbing him rather than decapitating him. I guess he only collects Caucasian noggins. The briefly-shown gore effects are excellent and a mood of non-stop tension is created by careful, stylish photography of the shadowy, cramped lighthouse interior and the stormy windblown darkness of the surrounding rocky shores. If you're prepared to overlook some dumb behavior on the part of the characters, this comes highly recommended to slasher film fans. It was made in the UK and was released on video in America in 2001 as DEAD OF NIGHT.

Many modern slasher flicks are somewhat campy and understandably so as writing a genuinely scary variant of a film type we've already seen many times isn't easy.

The Lighthouse takes itself seriously so at least deserves credit for trying although the result isn't anything special. The killer ultimately is another silent, emotionless type, the hero naturally happens to be someone accused of murder who isn't guilty.

Essentially a ship crashes leaving the criminals and officers to try surviving. Some manage to reach the nearby lighthouse. The only problem is the serial killer Leo Rook has escaped and already killed the lighthouse workers.

Actually there are good suspense scenes as certain characters try to avoid the killer. Unfortunately for slasher fans, the kills aren't terribly creative. At least it has good pacing and thus avoids being boring.