It is understandable that turning a book into a film can have its challenges, especially when the book is touted as a best-seller, but how bad can you screw something up when you have the author as a consultant?

Widow’s Point tells the story of Thomas Livingston (Craig Sheffer), a writer of supernatural novels searching for inspiration for his next best-seller by locking himself at an alleged haunted lighthouse for a weekend. During this time, he will find zero clues about what brought a horrible ending to several inhabitants and visitors of the infamous landmark.

The movie doesn’t bring anything new to the genre. It’s a basic haunted “house” story with a nonsense twist that doesn’t match anything through the course of the story. It tried so hard to be different that it ended up being silly. The story has interesting elements as when they narrate and act the past stories that led to the lighthouse hauntings, but none of these stories justify the cheap Lovecraftian ending that plays more as a divine intervention to save the story.

The film has been set to demonstrate a claustrophobic environment, which is never felt by the viewer. Even when Thomas begins to show panic and fear caused by confinement, those feelings are never transferred to the audience. At some point, the film even seems to try to take some pages from The Shining as the lockdown deteriorates Thomas’ mental health but, instead of making him look like Jack Torrance, he acts like Nicholas Cage on any given day. Not everything is bad for Widow’s Point. It does have some interesting shots like it’s camera angles that at some times resemble films from the 70’s, and it has the right amount of those—unlike the overly saturated jump scares that became predictable. It also has an excellent use of organic horror, until it becomes digitally unstable.

Widow’s Point promises that the horror shall come, but it never arrives. Instead we get a film crowded with spirits, symbols and stories of the past, which only demeans the central plot in present time.

5 OUT OF 10 WIDOWS