Half Light

Reviews

Wuchak
***Melancholy, drama, romance, ghosts and thrills on the secluded British coast*** After the death of her son and impending divorce, a successful writer (Demi Moore) moves to a cottage on the remote Scottish coast where strange, sometimes ghostly things start happening as she develops a relationship with the handsome lighthouse attendant (Hans Matheson). Henry Ian Cusick plays her husband, a failed writer, while Kate Isitt plays her close friend from London. Other important characters include a woman with second sight and the constable of the village. As you can probably tell, “Half Light” (2006) is a drama/mystery with ghostly elements and even some thrills in the last act. I wouldn’t call it horror. It’s not far removed from films like “Dark Water” (2005), “The Wicker Man” (1973/2006), “The Fog” (1980/2005), “The Haunting of Seacliff Inn” (1994), “The Sixth Sense” (1999) and “Loch Ness” (1996). If you liked those movies you’ll probably like this one. It features a haunting ambiance combined with magnificent British coastal locations. Early on there are a couple of predictable clichés, like a creepy event that turns out to be a nightmare, which itself is a nightmare, but this only happens once. At the midpoint there’s a twist that I didn’t see coming and another Hollywoodized one in the last act. Despite the magnificent locations, the first half is lugubrious and mundane with slow drama that pretty much morphs into a romance novel, but everything perks up with the twist in the middle. From there to the end it’s quite compelling. Some viewers have complained about the unlikely conspiracy of the last act, as well as it containing too many uncertain variables. But it makes sense when you factor in the great success of a certain person and the “little foxes” of envy, bitterness and greed, not to mention other things that I can’t share without spoiling. As for the “variables,” they can be easily explained away when you consider the fluidness of the root scheme. It might be Hollywoodish, but Forensic Files shows that these kinds of diabolic trickeries aren’t as unlikely as we might think. The movie runs 1 hour, 50 minutes and was in Wales and England (Cromwell & London), none of it in Scotland. GRADE: B
Movie Recommendation
- Making Love2000-02-11Costanza is drinking a beer in a Prague pub, a summer night in 1968, while a violinist enters and starts playing a "canone inverso" for her. It is not a case, that music and that violin have a story behind that could concern her. It is the love story between Jeno Varga and the music, between Jeno and Sophie.More...
- The Wrong Neighbor2017-06-26A recently separated father and his teenage daughter become the deadly obsession of their neighbor -- a beguiling, deranged young woman willing to do whatever's necessary to take her rightful place as their wife and mother.More...
- Simon Says2007-09-25Five college friends choose to spend their vacation debauching at the riverside. They find the perfect place to camp out, but end up crossing paths with twin brothers, Simon and Stanley. The twins then begins to knock off the campers in some extremely creative (and extremely gruesome) ways.More...
- Beautiful2009-08-28After another teenager disappears from the idyllic suburb of Sunshine Hills, Suzy, the girl-next-door of every boy's dreams, persuades Daniel, a fourteen-year-old with an obsessive crush, to help her uncover the truth.More...
- Guarding Tess1994-03-11Doug is a Secret Service Agent who has just completed his stint in charge protecting Tess Carlisle—the widow of a former U.S. President, and a close personal friend of the current President. He finds that she has requested that he not be rotated but instead return to be her permanent detail. Doug is crushed, and—after returning—wants off her detail as she is very difficult to guard and makes her detail crazy with her whims and demands.More...
- One Missed Call2003-11-03People mysteriously start receiving voicemail messages from their future selves, in the form of the sound of them reacting to their own violent deaths, along with the exact date and time of their future death, listed on the message log. The plot thickens as the surviving characters pursue the answers to this mystery which could save their lives.More...
- God's Not Dead: A Light in Darkness2018-03-30Pastor Dave responds to the unimaginable tragedy of having his church, located on the grounds of the local university, burned down.More...
- Stan Helsing2009-10-23A spoof on many horror movie series. Ending his shift at the video rental, Stan's picked up by his BFF and 2 cute girls, all going to a Halloween party. Will they even get there?More...
- Tideland2005-09-09Because of the actions of her irresponsible parents, a young girl is left alone on a decrepit country estate and survives inside her fantastic imagination.More...
- Like a Cat on a Highway 22021-08-14Three years after her relationship with Giovanni, Monica is in prison and has to ask his ex for help.More...
- Breakfast on Pluto2005-11-16In the 1970s, a young transgender woman called “Kitten” leaves her small Irish town for London in search of love, acceptance, and her long-lost mother.More...
- The Haunting in Connecticut 2: Ghosts of Georgia2013-02-01A young family moves into a historic home in Georgia, only to learn they are not the house's only inhabitants. Soon they find themselves in the presence of a secret rising from underground and threatening to bring down anyone in its path.More...
- Running Scared2006-01-06A low-ranking thug is entrusted by his boss to dispose of a gun that killed corrupt cops, but things spiral out of control when the gun ends up in wrong hands.More...
- Knock2017-10-18Doctor Knock is a former thug who has become a doctor and arrives in the small village of Saint-Maurice to make his fortune according to a particular method. It will make the villagers believe that they are not as healthy as they might think. It is thus that he will find in each one an imaginary symptom, or not, and thus will be able to exercise his profession lucratively. Under his seductive looks and after gaining the confidence of the village, Knock is on the verge of achieving his ends. But his past catches up with him and an old acquaintance disrupts the doctor's plans.More...
- The Hunchback of Notre Dame II2002-02-06Now that Frollo is gone, Quasimodo rings the bell with the help of his new friend and Esmeralda's and Phoebus' little son, Zephyr. But when Quasi stops by a traveling circus owned by evil magician Sarousch, he falls for Madellaine, Sarouch's assistant.More...
- No Good Deed2014-09-10Terri is a devoted wife and mother of two, living an ideal suburban life in Atlanta when Colin, a charming but dangerous escaped convict, shows up at her door claiming car trouble. Terri offers her phone to help him but soon learns that no good deed goes unpunished as she finds herself fighting for survival when he invades her home and terrorizes her family.More...
- The Hallow2015-11-06Deep within the darkness of secluded forest land in rural Ireland dwells an ancient evil. Feared by the nearby superstitious villagers as cursed creatures who prey upon the lost, their secrets have been kept from civilization and remain on their hallowed ground. But when a conservationist from London moves in with his wife and infant child in order to survey the land for future construction, his actions unwittingly disturb the horde of demonic forces. Alone in a remote wilderness, he must now ensure his family's survival from their relentless attacks.More...
- Frantic1988-02-19The wife of an American doctor suddenly vanishes in Paris. To find her, he navigates a puzzling web of language, locale, laissez-faire cops, triplicate-form filling bureaucrats and a defiant, mysterious waif who knows more than she tells.More...
- Gosford Park2001-12-26In 1930s England, a group of pretentious rich and famous gather together for a weekend of relaxation at a hunting resort. But when a murder occurs, each one of these interesting characters becomes a suspect.More...
- The Hole in the Ground2019-03-01Trying to escape her broken past, Sarah O’Neill is building a new life on the fringes of a backwood rural town with her young son Chris. A terrifying encounter with a mysterious neighbour shatters her fragile security, throwing Sarah into a spiralling nightmare of paranoia and mistrust, as she tries to uncover if the disturbing changes in her little boy are connected to an ominous sinkhole buried deep in the forest that borders their home.More...
Similar Movies
Hum Tum
2004-05-28The encounters of two people who run into each other on several occasions under circumstances ranging from friendly to hostile to loving. Along many years and countless run-ins, the two despise each other, befriend each other, and fall in love with each other—in no particular order.The Brave One
2007-09-12A woman struggles to recover from a brutal attack by setting out on a mission for revenge.Manon of the Spring
1986-11-19In this, the sequel to Jean de Florette, Manon has grown into a beautiful young shepherdess living in the idyllic Provencal countryside. She plots vengeance on the men who greedily conspired to acquire her father's land years earlier.Things We Lost in the...
2007-09-26A recent widow invites her husband's troubled best friend to live with her and her two children. As he gradually turns his life around, he helps the family cope and confront their loss.Under Capricorn
1949-09-08A native Briton banished to Australia for murder, and his wife, Henrietta, the disturbed sister of the man he was convicted on killing, set out to help her conquer her demons and return her life to normal.Shockers: Deja Vu
1999-10-19Psychological drama revolving around a couple caught in a living nightmare after the death of their young son in a car crash.A Tale of Two Sisters...
2003-06-13Two sisters return home after a stay in a mental institution, only to face disturbing events and a strained relationship with their stepmother. As eerie occurrences unfold, dark family secrets begin to surface, blurring the line between reality and nightmare.Raising Helen
2004-05-27Helen Harris has a glamorous, big-city life working for one of New York's hottest modeling agencies. But suddenly her free-spirited life gets turned upside down when she must chose between the life she's always loved, and the new loves of her life!It's Winter
2006-02-14Unemotional, restrained cinematographic poem, situated in a wintry and poor suburb of Tehran. A man is dismissed and his lack of prospects for the future make him decide to seek his happiness abroad. He leaves his wife and child behind and for a long time nothing is heard of him. Then a stranger turns up, a car mechanic looking for a job. The attractive single mother can’t resist his attentions. Very subtly, a struggle ensues that reflects that of a whole generation of young doubting Iranians who may want to leave the country, but hardly know how to start.Two Men in Town
1973-10-24A former bank robber is released after 10 years in prison. He gets help from a social-worker, but gets harassed by an old cop from his past.Fireworks
2017-08-18Moshimo, Japan. The annual fireworks festival is about to take place and a group of schoolboys, arguing over whether they are round or flat when viewed from different angles, set out to find it out.The Dark
2005-09-28In an attempt to pull her family together, Adèlle travels with her young daughter Sarah to Wales to visit her father. The morning after they arrive, Sarah mysteriously vanishes in the ocean. Not long after, a little girl bearing a striking resemblance to their missing daughter reveals that she has retuned from the dead — and that Sarah has been taken to the Welsh underworld.As Above, So Below
2014-08-14When a team of explorers ventures into the uncharted maze of bones that lies beneath the streets of Paris, they embark on a journey into madness and terror.River of Fundament
2014-02-12Visionary artist Matthew Barney returns to cinema with this 3-part epic, a radical reinvention of Norman Mailer’s novel Ancient Evenings. In collaboration with composer Jonathan Bepler, Barney combines traditional modes of narrative cinema with filmed elements of performance, sculpture, and opera, reconstructing Mailer’s hypersexual story of Egyptian gods and the seven stages of reincarnation, alongside the rise and fall of the American car industry.anohana: The Flower W...
2013-08-31A year has passed since Menma's ghostly return to the Super Peace Busters. Although the time they spent together during that summer was short, the five members reminisce about what happened as they each write a letter to their lost friend.Breathless
1960-03-16A small-time thief steals a car and impulsively murders a motorcycle policeman. Wanted by the authorities, he attempts to persuade a girl to run away to Italy with him.Batman Begins
2005-06-10Driven by tragedy, billionaire Bruce Wayne dedicates his life to uncovering and defeating the corruption that plagues his home, Gotham City. Unable to work within the system, he instead creates a new identity, a symbol of fear for the criminal underworld - The Batman.Beyond Silence
1996-12-18Beyond Silence is about a family and a young girl’s coming of age story. This German film looks into the lives of the deaf and at a story about the love for music. A girl who has always had to translate speech into sign language for her deaf parents yet when her love for playing music grows strong she must decide to continue doing something she cannot share with her parents.Mystic River
2003-10-07The lives of three men who were childhood friends are shattered when one of them suffers a family tragedy.Magnolia
1999-12-17On one random day in the San Fernando Valley, a dying father, a young wife, a male caretaker, a famous lost son, a police officer in love, a boy genius, an ex-boy genius, a game show host and an estranged daughter will each become part of a dazzling multiplicity of plots, but one story.