It has to be said at times our British film industry seems to only cater for lovers of middle-class romcom action. However, there's a nice undercurrent of vicious, tense horror movies with a little touch of something different coming out of the UK as well. I've been thrilled by My Little Eye and Creep this year, and just as I thought the year was drawing to a close, I watched this little gem.<br /><br />I love the slasher sub-genre, so it's nice to see some of my fellow countrymen getting in on the game. Lighthouse is quite similar to 80s classic Maniac Cop, in that you see Leo Rook constantly but not in ways that reveal anything of him until the end. He's a nasty fella as well, decapitating all and sundry and collecting their heads in a boat. So, top marks on creating a memorable villain.<br /><br />One of the hurdles slashers normally fall at is that they're now too restrained. Scream made it okay to be clever as opposed to scary, and while that's okay, some recent movies have felt more like an x-rated version of Lizzie Macguire than a slasher. Not a problem here, Lighthouse is in possession of tension you could cut with a knife (no pun intended) and loaded with excruciatingly long, nerve-wracking and drawn out chases, often finishing them with sequences of shocking violence.<br /><br />It's odd that the movie that most encapsulates what the slasher sub-genre is missing is British, given our history of faintly operatic vampire/devil worship movies, but it's the truth. Hopefully our native directors will continue this tack of releasing taut, nightmarish horror thrillers and I'll no longer have to put up with the slew of US teen-horrors and overblown SFX pieces coming from the other side of the pond.