(***1/2 out of *****) This is a bit derivative (mainly of the 1972 thriller "Tower of Evil"), but it's still decent. It's a British horror flick set mostly in and around a lighthouse located on a small, rocky island. When a ship transporting prisoners smashes onto the rocks and sinks, the survivors are forced to take refuge in the island's lighthouse, unaware that one of the prisoners, a brutal serial killer named Leo Rook, escaped his cell long before the accident and is already there waiting for them. Finding the headless bodies of the lighthouse workers in a closet, it doesn't take the survivors (including two prisoners chained together and a third convicted murderer who says he's innocent) long to figure out who's stranded there with them. The second half of this pretty fast-moving chiller concerns all of the remaining guards and prisoners (and one female psychologist) working together to set traps for Rook and/or to keep from being slaughtered. This is pretty bloody, but there's also a fair amount of suspense, particularly in the last half. Rook (Christopher Adamson) is a great, scary villain -- tall, vicious, and, most important, silent (he doesn't speak one word of dialogue throughout the entire movie, which is much more effective than some of these cinema slashers, a la Freddy Krueger and Chucky, who can't keep their wisecracking mouths shut.) Though a bit prolonged and ridiculous in my opinion, the climactic battle between hero and heroine (James Purefoy and Rachel Shelley) and Rook, while dangling from a fraying, burning rope at the top of the lighthouse in the pouring rain, is very intense and gruesome, particularly when Purefoy has to grip Shelley by her hair to keep her from falling and damn near scalping her in the process. All in all, this is a solid, contemporary thriller that offers some hope for horror movies in the 21st century. If it had been made in Hollywood, you could expect five or six sequels.
HIGHLIGHT: The ship's captain (Paul Brooke) finds himself trapped in a bathroom stall with Rook, who's oblivious to the captain's presence, on the other side. Without giving away too much, this is a very intense and well-directed scene, worthy of De Palma, where the most significant deciding factor between life and death is a can of air freshener.
HIGHLIGHT: The ship's captain (Paul Brooke) finds himself trapped in a bathroom stall with Rook, who's oblivious to the captain's presence, on the other side. Without giving away too much, this is a very intense and well-directed scene, worthy of De Palma, where the most significant deciding factor between life and death is a can of air freshener.