The Lighthouse (2016)

“Terror and Madness in 1801. In Wales”

Chris Crow’s atmospheric tale of isolation, madness and death in a Welsh lighthouse gets a UK DVD release courtesy of co-financiers (along with S4C, the BFI and others) Soda Pictures.

Pembrokeshire 1801. Two men, Thomas Howell (Michael Jibson) and Thomas Griffiths (Mark Lewis Jones) are despatched to Smalls Island lighthouse - a rickety wooden structure perched on a tiny island of rock twenty five miles from land. Their job is to keep the oil lamp burning and, in cases of thick fog, ring a bell as well to ward off ships.

This being Wales, the weather quickly becomes the worst possible, and as an endless storm lashes the collapsing building supplies of food and water run low. With no chance of a relief boat to save them, the two men begin to succumb to the claustrophobic, damp conditions. Howell is haunted by the seven men who died as a result of him falling asleep on a previous watch, and it turns out Griffiths, a bare-knuckle fighter in his spare time, knows all about Howell’s past. As the storm becomes the worst the two have ever experienced, the isolation drives them to the extremes of madness.

So much daft old rubbish uses the phrase ‘Based on True Events’ to justify its existence these days that’s it’s a genuine surprise to see it turn up on a story like this, which is well made, well acted, and increasingly terrifying as director Chris Crow slowly tightens the screws on his lead characters’ sanity. But it is true - it’s one of the most infamous cases in Welsh maritime history and led to a change in maritime law.

That, however, doesn’t matter as much as the fact that THE LIGHTHOUSE is a rattling good terror film in the best tradition of the works of writers like William Hope Hodgson and Henry James. Anyone who loves  the kind of story where someone is driven slowly mad by the sound of a dead man’s hand tapping at a window in a storm will love this, and this film is a welcome, and surprising, release for this Halloween.

Soda Pictures’ DVD comes with cast & crew interviews, behind the scenes stuff, an alternative opening credits sequence that I liked more (because it’s a bit more horror) and a couple of trailers. THE LIGHTHOUSE is a cracking Welsh tale of terror. Watch this and then THE LIBRARY SUICIDES and be impressed by what Wales is putting out there at the moment. 

Chris Crow's THE LIGHTHOUSE is out on DVD from Soda Pictures on Monday 31st October 2016. Here's the trailer:

The Library Suicides (2016)

“Stylish Welsh Thriller”

You don’t see those three words together very often, but that is indeed what this is - a Welsh language thriller (don’t worry, there are English subtitles) set in the National Library of Wales and the nearby town of Aberystwyth, now getting a DVD release courtesy of Soda Pictures.

Famous Welsh novelist Elena Wdig (Sharon Morgan) kills herself by jumping from the window of her seafront home. Or was she pushed? Her twin daughters Ana and Nan (both played by Catrin Stewart) seem to think so, and they believe they know who did it as well. In fact, so convinced are they that biographer Eben (Ryland Teifi) is the culprit that they concoct an elaborate scheme to lock him in the library after hours, with the intention of getting the truth out of him before killing him.

Needless to say, things go wrong. While one security guard is drugged as planned, the other, Dylan (Dyfan Dwyfor) doesn’t get his full dose of sedative. The twins have also failed to take into account that the actual truth behind what happened might be far more complex and involved than either of them has realised.

A slick, sexy thriller with just a few characters and an imposing and atmospheric setting (the outside of the National Library could double for the Tanzakademie in a remake of SUSPIRIA), THE LIBRARY SUICIDES is well worth a watch. The script is fine, the acting is good, and the direction (from Euros Lyn) ensures this is sharp and suspenseful.

         Soda Pictures’ DVD includes a making of featurette, deleted scenes and a trailer. I would say more about this film but I don’t want to give too much away, suffice to say it’s well worth checking out if you’re a fan of unassuming, original Eurothrillers. 

THE LIBRARY SUICIDES (Original title Y LLYFRGELL) is out on DVD from Soda Pictures on Monday 31st October