Best selling thriller novelist Rachel Carlson's son drowns near her home and leaves her devastated. About 8 months later she feel that she has to get away from London where she lives, to be alone and to finish her next book. A friend of her finds her a quiet place on the Scottish coast by searching the internet where Rachel rents a cabin. Once there she thinks it's the perfect place to write, but soon she starts seeing her son coming back from the dead and also starts spending time with the light house keeper, that she later finds out died 7 years ago. In the end she doesn't know what's real or what's just her imagination and she finds herself having to fight for her life.
I've had this movie lying around for a few weeks and the reason why I didn't view it right when I got it was because it didn't seem to be that interesting. I've never thought that Demi Moore was a bad actress, but on the other hand I can't say that I really like any of her work. So to watch a supernatural flick starring Demi Moore was not that appealing to begin with. When first started watching it, it felt pretty standard but after a little while it became somewhat better, that's until the final 15 minutes or so. I felt that the story had a lot of potential, but got kinda screwed up and uninteresting towards the end.
This is a movie that my mom would've liked, as it has the kind of suspense that she thinks is just about enough to make a decent thriller. But for me, being a huge horror fan, it's just so not enough. It started out pretty standard, got a bit interesting for a while but in the end it came out as being a very standard thriller. I can't give the ending away but it sure did ruin the little mystery that the movie first had. So the very outcome wasn't too good but the movie itself actually had a few things going for it, just not enough to satisfy.
What it really had going for it was the Scottish scenery which is just so nice and of course adds a certain atmosphere to the movie itself. After the death of her son, Rachel rents a cabin on the Scottish coast and is supposed to finish her book there but runs into all kinds of trouble. She's completely isolated from the rest of the world, and that also adds a little to the whole thriller feeling. That is, you know that she's alone out there so whatever sound or mystic sight is of course a bit strange. After spending just a short time on the coast, her son keeps re-appearing for her which is one of the two supernatural elements this movie has.
She soon meets the light house keeper and starts spending time with him and also get romantically involved. When she later on goes to a birthday party in the nearest town she finds out that the same light house keeper died seven years ago. I really liked this because it was here it got a bit freaky. The thing with the dead son showing up every now and then was nothing special, but the light house keeper was different. And it actually felt a bit like The Others, when she understand that the person she has been seeing actually died a long time ago.
If things could've stayed that way it would've been excellent, but instead they managed to ruin that freaky feeling big time by adding a shitty twist that left no mystery whatsoever and so ruined everything that once was good. I don't know why they keep doing this, exactly the same thing happened with White Noise, it also had a lot of potential but then they made the ending ruin absolutely everything.
No, unfortunately it's not scary. It got a tiny bit freaky for a while with an eerie feeling to it but they managed to wash that feeling off pretty quickly. The acting is good though, like I said I'm not a big fan of Demi Moore and she's nothing spectacular here but still manages to do the job, and the other actors are ok. Nothing fantastic but not bad either. Best things about Half Light, except for the nice Scottish scenery, is the score which is truly nice and adds some feeling to the movie as well. We get to hear some keltic music, some nice piano and violins and some other calm but very suiting music. I could definitely see myself buying the soundtrack here.
It starts off ok but does not feel very original, the middle part is the best and actually has some suspense to it but is ruined by the worthless ending. It's a somewhat ok movie but nothing I would watch again. Great scenery, great score but in the end a very standard thriller that won't appeal to an horror audience.
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ALTERNATIVE TITLE:
MOVIE YEAR: 2006
DIRECTOR: Craig Rosenberg
WRITING CREDITS: Craig Rosenberg
GENRE: Thriller
CAST: Demi Moore, Henry Ian Cusick, Therese Bradley
COUNTRY: Germany, UK
RUNTIME: 110 min
RATING: 4/10
Half Light Website/IMDB Click here
Half Light Trailer Click here
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