Horror comedy. We start the movie with a segment showing the events in the lighthouse of Hellview in 1882 complete with voiceover. Captain Howdy (played by Richard Kiel) the lighthouse keeper is watching a boat carrying his wife heading towards shore. His mistress Venetia (Julie Newmar) appears and he tells her the relationship is over. She takes exception and curses him before being electrocuted by the lighthouse light which also kills Captain Howdy who is knocked out of the window and drowns. The light goes out and his wife is killed when the boat hits the rocks.
We now fast forward to 1983 where Frederick Lansing (played by Bill Hudson) who has written a bestselling book has developed writer's block and wants to get away from it all (all told in jokey voiceover) so rents the lighthouse (that has been abandoned for 100 years) in Hellview under the name of Casper, a "ghostwriter".
When he enters the town he is accosted by psycho with a knife until he tells him that he is staying at the lighthouse when the townsfolk tell him he's doomed and shun him. He meets Kate the daughter of the town Sheriff who shows him the lighthouse. When he is in the lighthouse the ghost of Venetia appears and tells the viewer that now a man is in the lighthouse he will become the vessel for the return of her beloved Captain Howdy.
A body is then found in the sea near the lighthouse and is taken to the local morgue. as it is an unusual corpse they call in an expert in the bizarre Professor Paul Batton and his assistant Fritz (played by Mark and Brett Hudson).
The body of Captain Howdy vanishes from the morgue and starts to kill people. When they are killed they become reanimated zombies with pale faces, who wear turtle neck sweaters, have bushy eyebrows just like the captain's and say "What difference does it make?" when asked a direct question.
We now fast forward to 1983 where Frederick Lansing (played by Bill Hudson) who has written a bestselling book has developed writer's block and wants to get away from it all (all told in jokey voiceover) so rents the lighthouse (that has been abandoned for 100 years) in Hellview under the name of Casper, a "ghostwriter".
When he enters the town he is accosted by psycho with a knife until he tells him that he is staying at the lighthouse when the townsfolk tell him he's doomed and shun him. He meets Kate the daughter of the town Sheriff who shows him the lighthouse. When he is in the lighthouse the ghost of Venetia appears and tells the viewer that now a man is in the lighthouse he will become the vessel for the return of her beloved Captain Howdy.
A body is then found in the sea near the lighthouse and is taken to the local morgue. as it is an unusual corpse they call in an expert in the bizarre Professor Paul Batton and his assistant Fritz (played by Mark and Brett Hudson).
The body of Captain Howdy vanishes from the morgue and starts to kill people. When they are killed they become reanimated zombies with pale faces, who wear turtle neck sweaters, have bushy eyebrows just like the captain's and say "What difference does it make?" when asked a direct question.