Storm Ciara seemed to pass London by as my family and I were caught in the maelstrom of a rather strange and unintentionally humorous film last night 'The Lighthouse'. Although beautifully realised cinematically, early 30s black and white stying, even that was not enough to save it from sinking with 'All Hands On Deck'. Starting with great promise - forbidding seas, silent bearded men and scenes of 'weather' - it swiftly descended into major silliness. Unfortunately, even the ridiculous depths it began to plumb weren't able to prevent our eventual disconnect and resulting boredom.
Based loosely on true events that changed the law concerning the number of people employed to run a lighthouse (it must be three, so there's a witness if someone goes mad or dies) it had a good historical foundation to build on, but it seems that anything that includes the idea of salty, bearded, clay-pipe smokin' sailors has such a thin line to walk that it takes exceptional skill not to fall into the arms of "Arrh!, Arrh!, Arrh!" cliches and Monty Pythonesque humour. The crew of The Lighthouse didn't have those skills.
Setting out courageously into deep waters, with the clear intention of visually presenting a dark, psychological thriller/horror story, the film soon began leaking. Fighting valiantly at first, the director and players were finally forced to surrender . . . completely. Battered, exhausted and unable to resist the deadly tide of over-acting, bad scripting and oddly un-menacing sea demons that occasionally appeared, we (the audience) watched in silent disbelief as the narrative descended into farce and finally went all the way down with the ship. A pity. The fact that we saw it at the incredibly inexpensive PeckhamPlex allowed us to leave the theatre joking about the almost 2 hours we'd just endured instead of grumbling about our wasted evening.
Hopefully, those of you who check out my new track won't feel the same way about it's East LA Chicano ambience. I've deliberately written humorous lyrics to offset the stories which are based on real events taken from my Latino relative's lives. Here are the links to the track and the video:
iTunes/Apple Music https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/id1498160068
Spotify http://open.spotify.com/album/418vCBnUa71sMqpCA689vG
YouTube https://youtu.be/yytr8z2iXgw