Forlorned, The (2017)
Matt Boiselle
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Starring Colton Christensen, Cory C. Dangerfield, Elizabeth Mouton
Directed by Andrew Wiest
Andrew Wiest’s The Forlorned is one of those full-length films that basically holds its water, but the lack of true scares and a vapid storyline are the damning anchors that won’t really let this presentation float on its own.
Starring Colton Christensen as a man named Tom – a guy who is simply looking for some distance in his life, and when the opportunity for a new job springs up, he’s all over it like flies on shit. A guy expanding his boundaries into isolated introversion would sprint through hot coals to take a job as a lighthouse caretaker – he’s got the gig, and he’s happy as all hell. Now any self-reliant horror fan would tell you that lighthouses don’t exactly bring forth the brightest and most effervescent of beacons, especially when it comes to this particular genre, so we’ll all just sit here on this nearby raft and await the chills that are sure to come…boy, it sure is rough sailing out here, isn’t it? Anyway, Tom receives every conceivable red-flag about the lighthouse from locals and the like, but seems to slough it off like water off a duck’s back.
His loyalty to the job and general unwillingness to admit that there’s something obviously wrong out at the guidepost add up to some incidents that eventually begin to wear on the man’s psyche, much like the previous caretakers that have lost their marbles while working out there. The idea that the evil force that’s been haunting the lighthouse for years is pretty decent, manly due to the idea that “it’s what you cannot see, is that what scares you the most” – and for the most part, it does work, and in a generally entertaining balance, but when the big reveal is finally unveiled…YEESH. Needless to say, it’s both disconcerting and somewhat inadequate, considering what we’d all hoped we’d be led into – just a let down of sizable proportions. Christensen is more than capable of pulling off his portrayal of a man who just wants to be left alone to his job, and when that job is compromised by the most dire of circumstances, his actions and reactions suit the specific situations. It’s one of the few bright spots in a film that could have shone much brighter than advertised – will someone head to the store for me, please? This lighthouse’s beam is dimming rather quickly.
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Film
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