CERT: 15 / PLATFORM: DVD, DIGITAL / RELEASE DATE: SEPTEMBER 14TH

Adapted for the screen from Richard and Billy Chizmar’s 2018 novel of the same name, Widow’s Point is a time-flipping ‘supernatural horror’ that’s agreeable enough but unlikely to give many viewers’ sleepless nights. Novelist Thomas Livingstone is researching a new book about the grim, body-strewn history of the titular lighthouse. As a promotional gambit, he agrees to spend a weekend alone on site, videoing his experiences and delving further into the place’s cautionary past.

Isolated haunted buildings have an obvious appeal to budget-conscious indie filmmakers. The real-life Dunkirk Lighthouse on New York’s Lake Erie provides a suitably atmospheric setting although, as a piece of architecture, it’s a functional rather than an awe-inspiring example of the form. While director Gregory Lamberson’s screenplay fleshes out the Chizmars’ more solitary tale with extra characters, most of the weight of Widow’s Point rests on the shoulders of Craig Sheffer as Livingstone. Before the focus shifts almost entirely to the foolish author, several scenes re-enact the lighthouse’s dark backstory. In these more populated segments, the overall acting quality dips noticeably.

As Livingstone loses contact with the world outside, and spooky goings-on impact on his perception of reality, his psyche begins to unravel. Sheffer does not hold back in depicting Livingstone’s disconnected, dissociated state. These are the film’s strongest moments, their impact reinforced by some tight editing. The glimpses of ghoulish spectres, ghostly hands reaching out to grasp unsuspecting flesh, and the eerie sounds of disembodied voices: all of this is competently done, but none of this build-up is particularly scary. And even Sheffer’s determination to give it his all is not enough to salvage the rushed and underwhelming finale.