The Beacon

This movie was sort of mediocre, but leaning towards being good actually. The story of the movie was quite alright and kind of captivating and interesting. There was a constant and good flow to the story, so you never felt bored or found the movie to be uninteresting.

As for it being a ghost movie? Well, yeah, it is, but not in the traditional sense of a ghost movie. This is sort of one step beyond that, as the ghosts assume corporeal forms, which in itself is kind of interesting to see in a ghost horror movie.

The cast in "The Beacon" was alright, and each brought their characters fairly well to life on the screen. The dialogue could have been better in certain places throughout the movie, but not together all bad though.

The sets, scenery and make-ups were nice and worked well for the movie. However, the ending, well that was a bit too much. Sort of made me laugh actually, because it was so cliché, so typical Hollywood.

Throughout the course of the movie, you are taken for some thrill rides and exposed to some really nice twists to the story as well.

In summary, "The Beacon" is not an overly scary movie, it is more of an interesting ghost movie. Watch it if you like supernatural movies, just don't expect to get scared out of your seat.

After moving into a new apartment building following the disappearance of her son, a woman and her husband find the area's grisly history of suicides is sparking an increase in ghost sightings and that something may be after her.

This one here was a pretty forgettable entry but still has some good stuff about it. One of the main problems is that it's rather predictable from the outset, as nothing really sticks out here as being all that original or unique and it tends to wander down the same exact roads done hundreds of times in these kinds of films, where the woman maybe telling the truth or not and those around her are totally unsupportive. It becomes far more enjoyable during the last half-hour, when a twist comes along that really spices things up and makes the film far more enjoyable, as there's some good hauntings, nice make-up work and more that are highly enjoyable. However, all the Lifetime-style drama not only causes it to be too little too late, it also makes it stick out like a sore-thumb as being inconsistent with the rest of the film as it comes barreling out of nowhere with a ham-fisted introduction to turn it into a horror film. It's still pretty good, but it is flawed.

Rated R: Graphic Violence and Language

My friend arrives at my house holding THE BEACON and THE COLLECTOR in his hands and just tells me I should check them out, I knew THE COLLECTOR from the trailer I saw a while back but as for THE BEACON, I was completely blank, I had never heard of this film and yet my friend insist I should check it out.

So I started watching this film and the first thing I noticed was this wasn't a big Hollywood film, it reveals itself as a low budget movie with no attempts to hide it, it had a slow but progressive pace, the acting wasn't bad and has a few rather creepy moments but the real surprise is the ending.

The film turned out to be good after all, I'll admit I was surprised when I discovered this was a DTV film that my friend brought me but I can say it was worth the 90 minutes, although one thing to take into account is this film won't please everyone, as I found with many low budget films like this if the production value isn't up to a certain standard then certain people won't like, to me the production value is decent, I recommend people not necessarily set there standards low but I think keep'em in neutral and discover the film for yourself like I did.

Overall, it was pretty impressive and I think it could use a bit more attention.

(2009) The Haunting At the Beacon/ The Beacon HORROR

I saw this movie as "The Haunting At the Beacon" and not as "The Beacon" written and directed by Michael Stokes starring Teri Polo as Bryn, living with her husband Paul (David Rees Snell) as they're going through a tragic loss of their biological son, and happen to move into a hotel that is haunted. Straight-to-rental, and although it has it's moments, it's all been done before except that this version has a mediocre acting, plot holes and a premised that's been done a hundred times. And the budget restraints prevent this movie to be believable.

After reading the two reviews here, I was hopeful this would be good. Unfortunately, what I was subjected to was a bunch of clichés and a film that got progressively worse.

First, a little synopsis. A couple move in to an apartment building in order to put the traumatic loss of their child behind them and get their life back on track. Instead, their lives spiral out of control as strange events keep happening.

I've often wondered why the always reliable Teri Polo was always confined to supporting roles. Now I know. Polo stars as Bryn, who can't get over feelings of loss and guilt and she telegraphs and amplifies pretty much every emotion of her character. She's... regrettably bad. The direction and writing by Michael Stokes sure does not help but really, it's inexcusable.

David Rees Snell (a.k.a. that wooden actor who played the quiet of the four detectives in "The Shield) is her co-lead as the husband. Again, a cliché character of the husband courageously trying prevent his couple from sinking and repressing his emotions in the process (probably better that way, as the actor wouldn't be able to show any).

Oh, there's also the cliché sister. She's a hot babe with some of the worse lines and characterization I have seen in a while. Flashing her breasts to the movers one moment, and the next reciting platitudes disguised as pearls of wisdom the next. It's really painful.

Anyways, from the moment they move in, we meet a cast of weird characters. The tenants all have their little quirks and again, the characterization is awful, particularly when the whole plot is taken into account. This movie, mark my words, will have zero replay value because of the various plot holes, many of which are caused by the awful acting on display.

Speaking of the plot, this is your fairly typical ghost story, which means nowadays plot twists that don't really make much sense. These could have made for a watchable film in the hand of a competent director but unfortunately, it's not the case here. As things escalate and the weird happenings become more common, we are subjected to some of the worse makeup effects seen since the 90s. I literally paused and wondered if I was watching a horror movie or a comedy.

There are hundreds of horror movies you should watch but Beacon is not one of them, I would think. Unless you're a hardcore fan of the genre.