Let's be realistic.

Better Late Then Never

The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

There's a more than satisfactory amount of boom-boom in the movie's trim running time.

This movie is a lot like the movies High Tension, and Creep. It revolves around a lighthouse with a killer on the loose, knocking off every few minutes one more casualty. Although the story is nothing original, the writing, and directing are top-notch and worthy. The movie looks, and feels like a high-budget, blockbuster movie. From my Country of Origin, this movie has a very thrilling and is one of the best slasher films I have ever seen.This is the first lighthouse type movie I have ever seen, and I think it will remain the best for a while (in my perspective!).For the overall work and amazing atmosphere, I give this movie a cheering 9/10.

LIGHTHOUSE (USA: Dead of Night) Aspect ratio: 1.85:1Sound format: Dolby DigitalInmates 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.

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

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 bowlsWhy 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.