Nerds That Geek Movie Review: ‘The Forlorned’

Written by Scott Edwards

​It is funny when you think about changing jobs and what you start to look for when it comes to a new opportunity. When you start to learn all of the ins and outs of your current position, you start to understand which parts are good and which are bad. So, adding these factors into your job search, the one thing that you should always look for is a place where you feel comfortable that does not have any of the bad stuff you are moving away from. Even though you may find that no place is a hundred percent on eliminating the bad, a place that has less than your current gig would be a step in the right direction.
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After losing his father and needing to sell off his newly acquired boat, Tom Doherty has decided to take a position in restoring a lighthouse. Getting a tour from the town’s pub owner, Murphy has plenty of stories that he can tell the young man, but he really only wants to know what drove the young man to this job. With his father’s love of the sea, Tom believes that job will help him connect a little bit more with his father and if not, at least get him enough money to buy the boat back. Seeing that the young man needs his rest, Murphy heads back to the island and leaves Tom alone in the abandoned house.

While searching around the house for a room to sleep in, Tom is shocked to see that there are creepy dolls in every room, including one that likes to move on its own as well. Deciding to sleep in the comforts of the living room on the main floor to avoid the glares of the dolls, Tom wakes up fully rested and starts to work on the old property when he sees a man in old navel clothing getting torn limb from limb by a pack of pigs. Heading out to try and save the stranger, Tom is not able to find the man, much less the pigs and believes that the old house is playing tricks on him, but when making it back to the house he sees pig tracks in the snow that leave him questioning what he really saw.

Talking to Murphy at the pub, Tom is given another story about a lighthouse keeper that disturbs him to the bone, as there was a keeper who was eaten by his own pigs. Trying to stomach the past of the lighthouse is getting a little bit harder for Tom as he gets another story from a local trying to scare him off. Making it back to the house and continuing his work, Tom finds himself in the basement and uncovers an old book that has the names of many people inside. While he does not know the meaning of the book, much less who or what the names are meant to signify, Tom is forced to fight for his life against an unseen spirit that is looking to take his name as well. When none of his precautions help in the least, Tom gets knocked out and wakes up in the basement and a stranger may be his only hope of making it off of the island alive.

I have seen a number of lighthouses in my day on both coasts of the country and I must admit that you would never find me working in one. While they seem to be great for people that love the oceans, the stories, much like this one, are very tragic and it is hard not to find one where people have either died working at the lighthouse, or just off the shore when the light was not on. While this story takes a dark turn down the rabbit hole, it is really interesting to get a new character as the third act begins to find out just that little bit more to the haunted lighthouse story. I really liked the early haunting effects inside and outside of the house and the possibility of a ghost pig is not lost on me. With plenty of haunted happenings, a demon looking for souls, a new relationship, a possession, a ghost pig, a complete story and yes, a cannibal, this movie delivered exactly what I wanted to see, a haunted house story. Stay Scared.

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