|
| • Advanced Search • Help |
Dead of Night | Year: 1999 Classification: Horror Directed: - Simon Hunter Not For The Feint Of Heart or Weak Of Bladder Dead Of Night(Also known as Lighthouse) is one of the best thrillers I've ever seen. The story and cinematography are top notch. Leo Rook (Christopher Adamson) is one mean killing machine with a face that would stop a clock. The climax is as hard hitting as any I've seen and very original. Don't pass this one up! You won't be disappointed. 5 stars for epic horror movie 2 stars for dvd treatment When purchasing this movie I was not expecting more than your typical stalk and slash movie with 80's cliches in it. Boy was I totally wrong!!!! This movie is up there with all the other classic serial killer movies like Phsycho, Silence of the Lambs, and Maniac, but I thought was the real winner with this movie was the two edge of your seat scenes (the bathroom and ending that you will have to watch to find out). Shabby treatment for grade-A horror classic Simon Hunter's remarkable British horror-thriller "Lighthouse" (1999) is one of the best kept secrets of the 1990's. Barely released anywhere outside of the festival circuit, even in the UK where (at the time of writing) it hasn't even been submitted for a censor's certificate, it was eventually picked up for US distribution by A-Pix, where the title was quickly changed to "Dead of Night" against Hunter's express wishes. "We know our market!" A-Pix offered by way of explanation, before proceeding to disprove their own assertion by dumping the film briefly into a handful of theaters with a poor ad campaign and then consigning it directly to the video graveyard. What's so galling about A-Pix' shabby treatment is that the film is one of the most brilliantly-realized horror movies in recent memory. Hunter's own script tells the tale of a prison ship which strikes the rocks and sinks off the coast of a remote lighthouse-island 300 miles from the mainland. A small number of guards and prisoners escape the disaster and take refuge in the lighthouse where they're stalked by another survivor of the wreck, the monstrous psychopath Leo Rook (Chris Adamson). The basic premise is fairly familiar and prompts fond memories (perhaps deliberately) of Jim O'Connolly's equally outrageous "Tower of Evil" (1972), but Hunter's tightly-constructed script and dynamic visual style propels the narrative forward like a guided missile, pausing every so often for some truly gripping set-pieces, beginning with an early sequence in which the ship's captain (accomplished character actor Paul Brooke) becomes trapped in a stall in the lighthouse-washroom with Rook on the other side of the door, oblivious to the captain's presence. Then Brooke accidentally knocks a can of air-freshener from a shelf, precipitating a nail-biting cat-and-mouse confrontation which ends on a shrill note of genuine horror. But the real fireworks are reserved for the climax, a knock-down drag-out rollercoaster ride combining high-octane stuntwork and spectacular visual effects as the remaining survivors confront Rook at the top of the lighthouse. This incredible sequence contains more cliff-hanging thrills than a dozen serials and will leave most viewers completely drained, exhausted and thoroughly entertained. Populated with a cast of familiar British faces (including Don Warrington, heroine Rachel Shelley and James Purefoy as the regulation handsome hero), all of whom invest their roles with character traits which prevent them from sliding into routine stereotype, the film maintains an impressive degree of logic, isolating potential victims through careful calculation rather than narrative contrivance. And while there's plenty of R-rated brutality on display, Hunter emphasizes the thrill of pursuit and the THREAT of violence rather than an excess of splattery gore, and Simon Bowles' impressive low-budget production design transforms the storm-lashed island and lighthouse into a shadowy, antiq Buy Dead Of Night at Amazon.com Buy posters at Allposters.com Jamster - the latest ringtones for your phone!  Search with Walhello on the Internet on Dead Of Night Search with the Priority Search Engine on Dead Of Night This page in other languages: Suomeksi | Nederlands | Deutsch
|
