The Last Light: An Irish Ghost Story

The Last Light: An Irish Ghost Story
Starring Robert Render, Jo Lamont-Crawford, and Vivian Jamison
Directed, Written and Produced by George Clarke
2011
Unrated
85 minutes

Saint Patrick's Day is nearly here and what better way to get ready for it than with an Irish ghost story?!

I found this movie on my Amazon Prime list of horror films. It got terrible ratings by ordinary viewers, but I don't always believe those since I like books and movies that are not mainstream, and it takes place in Ireland. So I decided to give it a chance and see what I thought after the first 20-30 minutes. It was a cold, winter evening anyway, so why not?

In this story, we follow along on the last job of Rob Walker, maintenance man, who has been hired to secure and close up an old house that had been used as an old folks' home. Supposedly teenagers are getting in and trashing the place, and it really is unsafe.

Rob says goodbye to his wife, Jo, and promises that it won't take long and he will be back in plenty of time to get ready for their planned trip on the next day. They think of this as a simple job, with only a few windows to board up, and then off they go for their holiday.

One of the best parts, cinematographically, is the drive Rob takes to his home and to the old house, which is located in a Irish coastal town. The gorgeous, winding drive along Ireland's coast is both beautiful to watch for the scenery, and also reminiscent of another familiar drive through gorgeous scenery, that of Jack Torrance through the mountains in The Shining. 

Finally Rob gets to the house. There is a big chain link fence around the property with a locked gate. A sign says, "Danger. Derelict Building. KEEP OUT."

Once he is near the house, we finally get a good look at it. It is a monster of a building--big, sprawling, dilapidated, sadly worn out from better, more affluent days. There are windows, lots of them, some boarded up but many not. Rob will have some work to do.

Right away we get a sense of the tension in the story, as Rob makes his way around the building, examining it for entrances or broken windows. The background music as Rob walks around the place is lovely, a lone violin with a mournful drone. One of the best things about this movie is the music since it is fairly simple instrumentally and sets the mood quite well.

We are introduced to the noises in the house as soon as Rob unlocks the massive deadbolt on the main door and surveys the scene with the greenish light from his torch. Upon trying to light his second cigarette and already not finding his lighter, he hears a bang from within the house and rushes off inside the dark maze of corridors to find the culprits, those kids trashing the house. Crazy eerie laughter is heard as they lead Rob on a merry chase of cat and mouse deeper and deeper into the darkness.

One of my favourite moments occurs early in Rob's exploration of the house. There is a bit of comic relief as he takes the time to make shadow animals on the wall in the green glow from his flashlight.

Fortunately, he has a flashlight. Oh, wait, he loses it too! What will he do now?

Okay, this movie is somewhat predictable with Rob chasing mysterious figures in white only half seen in the darkness  but who then attack him. I liked the close up effect of the ghosts attacking and Rob fighting them off, only to have the camera pull back so that we can see Rob is struggling by himself. The ghost has vanished. Lots of dripping water sounds and crumbling walls add to the effect of dereliction. 

When Rob doesn't return in time, who comes to the rescue? His wife and friend who, when she hears where Rob has gone, tells Jo, "That place is known for paranormal activity, violent paranormal activity."

"We all have guides, spirit guides. They're with us at all times.... If I can connect with my spirit guide I can find out if Rob's okay."

And in typical horror movie fashion, all does not go well with any of these people.

The title, The Last Light, comes from the ending of the movie. Rob has lost his torch, his cigarette lighter, and then used all of his matches in his attempt to get out of the house before the violent spirits get him. He does not see the hand of his now-deceased wife, holding a rosary, emerging out of the rubble of a wall that collapsed on her. Rob finds one more match, lights it, and sees his last ghost. The movie ends here with us supposing that Rob never does get out.

This movie is filmed in a fairly "realistic" style, very low budget (only £200), no fancy cinematography or effects. If you have seen The Blair Witch and Paranormal Activity, you will understand how this one looks. The filter on the camera is set to a blue/green tint to give a washed-out, colourless look to to everything, stressing the oldness and greyness of the big house we are about to enter. The last only real burst of colour we see in the film is at Rob and Jo's house with the red-orange walls and her bright clothing. Supposedly the lighting was zippo lighters and matches, an ipad light, and a maglite torch covered with a sandwich baggy.

There are major things that are never explained to us in the film. Who are the ghosts and what are they doing there? Who is Michael, the strange young man Rob finds in the attic under a plaid blanket? Why was Rob able to work at the house for several days previously with no difficulties but is now terrorized out of his wits? Who hired him for this job anyway? I guess I will never know the answers.

Cairndhu House, County Antrim, Northern Ireland

I do want to say something about the house used in this movie, Cairndhu House, located near Larne, County Antrim, Northern Ireland. It was built for Stewart Clark, a wealthy Scottish textile industrialist in 1878 and was extended over the years, which explains its warren of hallways and rooms off of rooms.

Sir Thomas and
Lady Edith Dixon

In 1918, Edith Clark, daughter of Mr. Stewart Clark, came to live at the house with her husband, Sir Thomas Dixon. This was one of many of their homes and they further enlarged the home and estate, enjoying house and garden parties there.

In 1947, the house was donated to the Northern Ireland Hospitals Authority. It had become too big for the elderly Dixons and they hoped it would be used as a convalescent home and hospital. It opened as a convalescent home in 1950, but finding funds to run such a large building was difficult, so it was eventually closed in 1986. It has been left derelict for many years and is now reputed to be "one of the most haunted houses in Northern Ireland."

Who haunts Cairndhu House? I'm not sure, although now we can add Rob, Jo, and friend Viv to the list of ghosts.

Shutter

Shutter 
by Courtney Alameda
New York: Feiwel and Friends
2015
372 pages

I picked up this book a few months ago and finally got to it. The premise of the story was really appealing to me. We have ghost hunters, vampires, allusions to old stories, all in a rather dystopian plot.

For those of you have not read Dracula by Bram Stoker, you may not remember the main characters of that story and will not understand the references in this book. The characters are:

• Dracula, a vampire
• Jonathan Harker, a young London solicitor
• Miss Mina Murray, Jonathan Harker's fiancée
• Miss Lucy Westenra, Mina's BFF
• Dr. John Seward, the head of a lunatic asylum
• Dr. Abraham Van Helsing, expert in medicine, folklore, and the occult
• R. M. Renfield, a mad patient of Dr. Seward

Van Helsing confronting Dracula in the 1957 Film, The Horror of Dracula

The families of Helsing, Harker, Stoker, and others are important to our present story. Descending from Abraham Van Helsing, the present heroine of our story, Micheline Helsing, is a member of a proud and active ghost hunting family. They have become the leaders in capturing ghosts, necros (paranecrotic creatures who emerged from the plague graves of the fifteenth century, with a mutated strain of the Black Death), and other monstrous creatures.

Most ghost hunters catch their prey's energy with charged silver panes or mirrors, later dipped in insulating glass to keep the ghost from escaping back into the living world. Micheline, however, has more unusual methods. She uses cameras mainly, not digital cameras but old-fashioned analog cameras and film. She shoots the ghost several times on one frame of film which captures the light and the modified quartz lenses conduct a ghost's electricity. Then the ghost's energy is whittled away by each shot until they are finally sealed into the film's silver halide trap.

Micheline has a reputation for never having failed in a hunt.

Our story begins with a cry for help at Saint Mary's Hospital. People are dying in terrible ways. A ghostly presence has taken over one of the floors and has mutilated some of the patients, nurses, and doctors. There is chaos and commotion everywhere. Micheline arrives first, before her helpers, and makes a split second decision to go in alone and do what she can. She rushes inside without looking back.

Any of us can tell that this was a very bad idea. And sure enough, disaster befalls Micheline and her helpers--Ryder, Luke, and Oliver--who finally show up to help with the capture. But this is no ordinary spirit. This ghost seems intent on revenge against the Helsings, "Hand for hand, and tooth for tooth..."

In the end, the ghost vanishes and Micheline, Ryder, Luke, and Oliver are rushed to the hospital. The ghost has infected them all with something diabolical . Paranecrotic innoculations are begun but to no avail. They are not suffering from necrosis but something even worse--soulchains that tie them to the creature who infected them. Unless they find this creature and destroy it before the end of the week, they themselves will be destroyed.

Micheline and the boys end up on the run, having to deal with their problem. They escape to the Helsing's former compound, abandoned after the disastrous death of Micheline's mother. There, they troupe of ghost hunters makes their center of operations. The evil ghost leads them on a destructive rampage through the city, bringing mutilations and death in order to set a trap Micheline.

Who is this diabolical ghost with a grudge against Micheline and the Helsings? That revelation almost stops Micheline in her tracks. But this is not the end of the story; there is an even bigger surprise in store for the Helsings that could lead to the end of that family completely.

This book is by a fellow graduate from my alma mater, Brigham Young University. Courtney Alameda graduated with a degree in English Literature with an emphasis in Creative Writing. The back cover blurb also tells me that she is also a librarian!

I  think, because of the technical language and the descriptions of gore and violence, this would be a more suitable story for older teens, 15 years and up.

The Babadook

The Babadook

Starring Essie  Davis and Noah Wiseman

Directed by Jennifer Kent

Produced by Causeway Films

2014

Unrated

Most of you might not know this about me, but I taught a Children's Literature class at Saint Mary's College this past Spring Semester. I love children's books, especially fantasy. It is no wonder then that when I read the blurb on this movie that I had to see it. It centers around a children's picture book! How great is that?!

Also, not many horror movies get 5 star ratings from viewers or 98% ratings from Rotten Tomatoes. That alone told me that this directorial debut movie from Jennifer Kent, who also wrote the story, was going to be something worth watching.

Amelia is a widow, having lost her husband in a horribly tragic accident on the way to giving birth to their son, Sam. She has had to take care of Sam alone for about six years now, and she has never really recovered from her husband's death. Add to this the fact that Sam is a handful! He is a child who has tantrums, mainly caused by fear, I think. Every night, he wakes in terror of monsters under the bed or in the closet, and his mother has to check and examine every nook and cranny. In the end, he usually ends up in bed with her, and Amelia is never able to get enough rest.

As part of his fear, Sam constructs various weapons to fight the monsters and protect his mother from them. Early in the film, he gets into trouble because he brings one of his rather scary and potentially dangerous weapons to school. Amelia, in desperation and exhaustion, decides to remove her unusual son from the school rather than figure out how to help him fit in better. It is all too overwhelming to her.

As part of their routine in the evening, Sam is allowed to select books for his bedtime story. One evening, he selects a picture pop-up book called Mr. Babadook. 

Amelia doesn't recognize this one. Where did it come from? She begins to read.

This is creepy and sounds much to familiar. Could this be why Sam is having nightmares?

The pictures get worse and worse, showing strangely familiar figures committing horrifying acts. Amelia cannot finish and hides the book so that Sam won't choose it again.

But this is a horror movie, so you can guess what happens! The book returns to the book shelf and more pictures appear. Amelia goes so far as to tear up the book and throw it away in the trash.

Now the story gets much too realistic and scary for some people. Amelia starts to see shadows that move and hears noises that shouldn't be there. The call of "Baba Dook-Dook-Dook"  can be heard in the house. Sam has a seizure, from seeing the Babadook, and Amelia is feeling helpless to understand or help.

Is the Babadook real or only in Sam's imagination? We think it might be all in Sam's imagination until we then see the book, reassembled, on the front porch. 

I don't want to give away too much of this story because it is one any fan of horror will want to see. It is a great story of mother-child relationships and love, possession, childhood fear, and madness. The Babadook, so like the Boogeyman most of us have imagined at one time or other, is depicted as a large black man/monster with a top hat and large teeth. He can walk, climb, fly, and pass through walls, so nowhere is really safe from him. Every child's nightmare, right?

The Babadook depicts every mother's nightmare, too: the slow descent into madness caused by isolation, lack of sufficient rest, constant problem-solving, and inability to help your child when there is a problem. Kids can drive you crazy, usually not literally, but having to deal with them all the time by yourself is very daunting to even a strong mother. Amelia is already fragile from the loss of her husband, so she is an easy victim of the monster that wants in.

Jennifer Kent, the director, made her debut with this movie and it premiered at the January 2014 Sundance Festival in Park City, Utah--a festival I have attended myself and where many great new films by independent filmmakers are shown. It was released in November 2014 in the States, and came out on DVD in April 2015. It was described as a fresh new style of horror with no gore and jump scares, but real psychological horror. Kent relied more in her writing and filming on the horror classics, analyzing what made them scary to audiences. It is possible to see elements of  Nosferatu, The Shining, Halloween, Let the Right One In, and others in this story. 

Really there are only two main actors in this film, Essie Davis and Noah Wiseman. They are both excellent and realistic in their parts. I am excited to find out what other roles Essie Davis has done. Her portrayal of a tired, desperate mother is perfectly executed here. The young boy, Noah, is also convincing in his role. He is a cute little boy who makes you want to either give him big hugs because he is so scared all the time or lock him in a room and run away because he is so strange.

I heartily recommend this movie to anyone who likes horror movies. It is not rated, but I probably would not allow somebody under 13 to watch it without reservations. It probably should get an R for the horror factor. It is pretty intense at times. I did not watch this one alone!

Here is the official trailer for you to watch.

I am really excited now to see what Jennifer Kent does next. I hope it is another horror film!