Showing posts with label lighthouse. Show all posts
Showing posts with label lighthouse. Show all posts

Wednesday, February 4, 2026

Go Back To Sleep!

 

 (imdb)

PATRICK:EVIL AWAKENS-2013-Nurse Cathy (Sharni Vinson) goes to work for Dr. Roget (Charles Dance) and his uptight daughter Cassidy (Rachel Griffiths) in a ward for comatose patients. She meets Patrick (Jackson Gallager), a young man who's in a coma and Roget's “special case”. There's one patient who is awaken though, Mr. Frazier (Chris Fortuna), a victim of an electrical fire who operates a lighthouse. Cathy becomes friends with Paula the other nurse there. She comes to believe that Patrick is aware of things around him. She has weird dreams. But Patrick is controlling things, even using a computer and makimg her boyfriend burn both of his hands. 

Drawn out junk from Australia directed by Mark Hartley. It's based on the 1978 Richard Franklin film PATRICK.

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Tuesday, May 20, 2025

Very Cold

 

 (imdb)

COLD SKIN-2017-Interesting but ultimately disappointing Lovecraft inspired horror set on an island where a man (David Oakes) has come to be the new watchtower keeper. He meets a guy named Gruner (Ray Stevenson) who says the last keeper is dead. Strange sea creatures terrorize them. It's all downhill from there. 

This French/Spanish co-production was directed by Xaiver Gens (HITMAN (2007).

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Tuesday, December 5, 2023

Piedras Blancas

 

 
 (imdb)


THE MONSTER OF PIEDRAS BLANCAS-1959-After a huge claw appears from behind a rock, lighthouse keeper Sturges (John Harmon) warns some locals to stay away from his place. After the credits the headless bodies of two brothers are found on the beach of the California coastal town Piedras Blancas. Constable Matson (Forrest Lewis) is stumped but locals think Sturgis might have something to do with it. Sturgis gets upset when talkative grocer Kochek (Frank Arvidson) didn't save him any meat scraps. Strugis' daughter Lucy (Jeanne Carmen) works at the local cafe and hangs around Fred (Don Sullivan from THE GIANT GILA MONSTER). The local doc (Les Tremayne) says both corpses were drained of blood and he's puzzled. While Fred and Lucy frolic on the beach, Sturgis puts a pail full of fish on the rocks. At night Lucy decides to go for a swim and the creature's claw appears again. The creature kills Kochek (we only see its shadow) and a little boy Jimmy (the director's son) discovers the headless body while they are burying the brothers. Later after Sturgis is found unconscious on the rocks, a little girl is murdered. When the constable goes to investigate Kochek's meat locker, he gets a big surprise. The monster was hiding in there and emerges carrying a severed head! The constable is wounded but not too badly. While Sturgis is convalescing, he tells Lucy there really is a monster and he's been feeding it for years! 

This  great low budget horror film has a memorable scary monster and a great cast of likable characters. Great climax! 

This was the first film directed by Irvin Berwick, formerly a dialogue coach working with William Castle and Jack Arnold. He and make-up artist Jack Kevan (the film's pro-ducer) decided to make their own movie and formed their own production company. Berwick's son Wayne later made MICROWAVE MASSACRE (1979).

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Wednesday, June 30, 2021

Mr Big Is Back!

  (photo: IMDB) 


TORMENTED-1960-On a coastal island in an abandoned lighthouse, Jazz pianist Tom Stewart (Richard Carlson) let's his former lover Vi (Juli Reding) fall to her death when she threatens to blackmail him with some incriminating love letters which would spoil his upcoming marriage to rich girlfriend Meg Hubbard (Lugene Sanders). 

Almost immediately he starts to feel guilty. He sees VI's corpse floating in the ocean but when he swims out to retrieve it, he finds it's just a pile of seaweed. Then he sees strange footprints in the sand. Meanwhile Meg's very young sister Sandy (Susan Gordon, the director's daughter) performs a magic trick. He has a weird dream where he's menaced by Vi's ghost. Then he sees a disembodied hand wearing Meg's wedding ring. Then Meg's wedding dress is wrapped in seaweed. His blind housekeeper Mrs. Ellis (Lillian Adams) suspects a ghost. A boat operator (Joe Turkel) who brought Vi to the island tries to blackmail Tom. 

Later he has a conversation with VI's disembodied head. At Vi's urging Tom kills the blackmailer. Unfortunately Sandy witnesses the whole thing! The wedding doesn't turn out as they planned either. All the flowers die. Later when Tom goes to the lighthouse and tells Vi she's won but Sandy follows him and tells him she knows he's a killer. Tom plans on pushing Sandy off the lighthouse but Vi's ghost causes him to fall off and die. Tom and Vi are united in un-dead matrimony. Gene Roth and Merrit Stone have small roles. 

Not a bad little low budget ghost story from Mr. BIG himself Bert I. Gordon (Still alive at the time of this writing!).


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