Lighthouse (2000)

What makes it different from others?

I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

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

With all this garbage they call horror coming out these days, you almost automatically become skeptic and negative-minded towards smaller productions before you've even seen them! My expectations on "Lighthouse" were very low (actually, I had none) but it turned out a pleasant surprise and it's really not that bad at all. This even is – do I dare to use the word – a GOOD chiller with a no-nonsense plot, some atmospheric tension, impressively staged set pieces and even a couple of authentic shock/gore sequences. Don't expect originality, of course, as the screenplay is primitive horror material with a psychopath stalking and butchering a small group of people in an isolated setting. This setting, however, is very appealing since it's an island with only an ancient lighthouse on it and the people are survivors of a sunk prison ship. Following the old-fashioned Jason Vorhees traditions, the killer carries a machete around which makes the murders nasty and body country fairly high. Every cliché you can name features here, but I personally couldn't care less because this is a fun and unpretentious thrill-ride and nothing more. The Leo Rook character is the closest thing to a scary psychopath we horror fans have seen in years and writer/director Simon Hunter deserves some praise for knowing his classics. There are a handful of terrific sequences, like the actual shipping accident and the 'Vertigo'-like camera-work inside the lighthouse. The extended sequence in the loo is damn close to brilliant!

This is by far the best slasher I have seen in recent memory. The Europeans can teach us Americans a thing or two about making a suspenseful slasher. This is far better than any American slasher flick made in the last twenty years. The suspense is constantly edge of your seat, the direction flawless and the acting first rate.The plot centers around a ship transporting convicts to an island penitentiary, that sinks stranding the survivors on a lighthouse island. One of the survivors, the feared deranged serial killer Leo Rook, begins to kill off the remaining survivors one by oneThis film is very chilling, it grabs your attention from the start and never lets go. Rachel Shelley, James Purefoy and Chris Adamson, as Leo Rook were all terrific.Only a movie this brilliant can make a ten minute scene of an obese man on the john, a nail-biting climactic experience

~Spoiler~The slasher film is alive and well...and living in England. Weird, I know. I really enjoyed this late entry into the slasher sub-genre. Dead of Night follows a prison ship transporting notorious serial killer, Leo Rook, which never arrives at its destination. It sinks and the survivors are forced to swim to an "abandoned" lighthouse while Rook is somewhere on the island. Dead of Night is a low-budget flick with quite a few surprises. The main surprise is the bathroom scene. One of our cannon fodder characters is hiding inside a bathroom stall while the killer is also in the room. He knocks a can of air freshener over and it slowly falls to the ground only to land on a towel. It's as tense as anything I've seen; A real sweating bullets moment. It reminds me quite a bit of the heart attack-inducing game Clock Tower. Equally edgy is a scene involving another character hiding in a dingy and one in which the heroine is literally hanging by her hair. Ouch. James Purefoy (Resident Evil) is good in the lead and Christopher Adamson is very sinister as the baddie. Watch out for the sequel, Dead of Night II: Rook Takes Queen. Or maybe not. Either way, Dead of Night is a gory bit of fun.