Half Light

Rachel Carlson (Demi Moore) is a successful writer. She has a loving, precocious son and an editor for a partner. Life is pretty perfect until tragedy strikes her son. Overcome with grief, she (like all good characters in supernatural movies) decides to leave everything behind and head for the remotest, spookiest cottage she can get her mitts on in the Scottish Highlands.

Local lighthouse keeper Angus McCulloch (Hans Matheson) offers her a hand of friendship, which quickly leads to romance. Before you can say, "Look behind you," all sorts of creepy stuff begins to happen, leaving her wondering if she is sane, or haunted.

Half Light went straight to DVD in the USA, which is odd, since much worse films get to see the cinematic light of day on an almost weekly basis. There is a formula here, much of which you will be familiar with, but the tale is solid and has enough surprises to hold an audience in suspense.

Running at almost two hours, it is overlong, with large passages of scenery, accompanied by a sweeping Celtic soundtrack. Plus the initial languorous pace ultimately gives way to a haste of plot points, which may leave you scratching your head. Also, some of these devices have the faint whiff of cheese, such as locals who switch to talking Gaelic to mask what they're saying, a woman with second sight who keeps an odd collection of dolls and a preacher who always says he'll fix the church cross but never gets round to it.

Still, there's plenty here to commend. Moore is nicely cast as a woman on the verge and Matheson is suitably dishy in an Orlando Bloom kind of way. Shame then about the supporting cast, with Henry Ian Cusick particularly wooden, although he isn't helped by the script.

More televisual than cinematic, Half Light is too chocolate boxy and clean to be completely convincing, but it's a diverting enough story, which doesn't strain the bounds of disbelief too much.