Thursday, May 20, 2010

Leaving the light on...

Because last week I was on vacation but was unable to take the usual trip to the Outer Banks, I was feeling rather melancholy and kept wistfully thinking of lighthouses (because there are four we see there every year)... and of course my warped mind worked that right into thoughts of lighthouses in horror movies.

I'm a big fan of lighthouses, in general. I've seen quite a few up and down the entire East coast, and a few in the Great Lakes region, so they really appeal to me in horror movies as well. Whereas they are supposed to be beacons of hope and all that happy jazz, in horror they evoke more dread at times that anything else. But that could very well be simply because of the content of the film.
Sometimes they play a pivotal role within the movie, other times they are just there to be aesthetically pleasing or give a sense of unease.

In any case, just a few of my favorites:



The Ring (2002; the photo at the top of the post is also from The Ring)



Lighthouse a.k.a. Dead of Night (2000)



Darkness Falls (2003)



The Orphanage (2007; image stolen from Andre at The Horror Digest)



The Shuttered Room (1967)



Harper's Island (tv, 2009)



Storm of the Century (tv, 1999)



Half Light (2006)



Jaws (1975)


Jaws (again)



The Lovely Bones (2009)



The Goonies (1985)



Shutter Island (2010)



The Fog (1980)


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3 comments:

James Gracey said...

Great post! Gives me a hankerin' to watch The Fog. Some wonderfully eerie, striking shots here. A friend of mine adores all things lighthouses, so I'm gonna send her a wee link to this. Have a lovely weekend! :o)

Andre Dumas said...

Hehehe awesome! You should have told me and I could have gotten you a really AWESOME pic of the lighthouse in the orphanage. Actually I may have it on file even... Drats!

Christine Hadden said...

James: I love The Fog, it's so darn creepy!
Obviously your friend has great taste. Someone once told me lighthouses are America's castles...'course they had to say that- we've no other castles to speak of!

I'll get back to you this weekend, so until then, have a good one:)

Andre: Hey, I can always change the pic! If you have it on file, email me. But if it's a trouble, don't worry about it. :)