Haunting at the Beacon

😀

Great story with excellent characters. I didn't see the end coming. The makeup at the end could have been a little more intense.

Surprising and horrifying

So a mother still grieving over the loss of her young son finds a low-rent apartment in a majestic old building - you know nothing good can possibly come of this. Despite this clichéd and greatly overused story foundation, Haunting at the Beacon tries its best to rise to the occasion - and almost succeeds. It certainly exceeded my expectations, delivering a pretty good twist toward the end, although I must report a real sense of disappointment over the ending itself. I should note that this is by no means a scary movie - yes, there are ghosts and they aren't always pretty, but this is more psychological horror than anything else.The Beacon seems to be just the place for Paul (David Rees Snell) and Bryn Shaw (Teri Polo) to begin a new chapter in their lives together. Bryn finally seemed to be coming back from a very bad place after losing the couple's four-year-old son a few years earlier, and Paul is starting a new job as a professor. Unfortunately, things start to go wrong as soon as the Shaws move in. Bryn begins hearing people arguing in the next room and keeps encountering a boy who, she later learns, died in the building several months earlier. Of course, with her having been under psychiatric care, no one really believes the things Bryn is reporting. Naturally, given her sense of guilt over her own son's loss, she is going to try and help the ghost boy find the release he has so far been denied - apparently by his dead father. She has no idea that the problem is much larger, more complex, and certainly more dangerous than it first appears.I found Teri Polo's performance quite interesting, largely because she sometimes reminded me of Jodie Foster. I'm definitely not saying she's half the actress Jodie Foster is, but she does bear a slight resemblance to her and, every once in a while, she seems to adopt some of Foster's mannerisms. My guess is that she has studied some of Foster's performances and is trying - perhaps subconsciously - to imitate Foster's level of performance. There's no doubt that she gives her all to the role, though. As for the supporting cast, you have both Michael Ironside and Ken Howard (who I don't think I've seen since The White Shadow program years and years ago) playing policemen. The gorgeous Marnette Patterson plays Bryn's saucy little sister, Elaine Hendrix shines as a vivacious little vixen, and Kelli Dawn Hancock fills the underdeveloped role of a pill-popping police woman with a mysterious background.The story hearkens back to ancient legends about suicide victims and the belief that they could come back and take corporeal form if not disposed of properly. This makes for an interesting twist to the traditional ghost story the viewer might be expecting. In retrospect, though, there are a number of rather untidy plot holes strewn throughout the film, several of which are actually magnified by the film's final moments. Still, I enjoyed the film and was poised to give it four stars until I saw the ending play out as it did.

After the traumatic death of their son, Bryn and Paul move into a new apartment complex in the city to start piecing their lives back together. What they don't know is that the building is home to the spirit of another young boy who was killed there years earlier, as well as his father who will do anything to keep the reason behind his son's death a secret! HAUNTING AT THE BEACON takes slow and deliberate steps in setting itself up as a classic ghost tale in the grand tradition of films like THE INNOCENTS, BURNT OFFERINGS, or THE SENTINEL, but director Michael Stokes destroys everything that he has worked so hard to achieve in the final act, which takes the film way over the top and creates a number of logical inconsistencies that are impossible to ignore. Teri Polo offers an emphatic performance as the troubled lead, who is never quite sure if what she is witnessing is just another sign of her grief or a chance at redemption. The plot, however, is so expectantly bland, predictable, and full of cliches that it becomes average and forgettable. With a bit more subtlety in the end, HAUNTING AT THE BEACON could have at least maintained a sense of dignity without falling into cheap gross-out and scare tactics.-Carl ManesI Like Horror Movies

Haunting at the Beacon is a terrible movie. It's supposed to be a horror and... while certain elements are relatively freaky (especially near the beginning) overall it's a humongous letdown instead.At least the final 20 minutes offers something in the way of suspense, even though (without spoiling anything) the actual presentation is about the cheesiest thing I've ever seen. The way the characters deliver their lines and try their hardest to be believably scary... ugh! Horrible.It wouldn't be fair for me to spoil what happens so I'll say this instead- the character development you see in the beginning doesn't really prepare the viewer for the segment at the end because, to be fair, it's actually a pretty remarkable twist. It's just that it was so FUNNY to me (instead of suspenseful) which goes against what the movie writers had in mind. Oh well.The storyline aspect of the woman seeing shadow images of a little boy was never a *really* amazing plot point, which is a major disappointment right there. I expected this little boy to be a constant aspect to the storyline but unfortunately he wasn't. In fact it seemed to fall by the wayside as the film rolled along. Instead, a focus on the one womans sleazy (at least, she came off as sleazy from MY point of view) sister saying comically awful lines to try and impress the next door neighbor was a bigger point of the story. Stinks.Actually the events of the shadow boy quickly become forgotten just as soon as this one hot blonde, 30-year old woman makes an appearance. She plays a crucial part to the fantastic ending (despite, again, how cheesy it is) but at least she saved what would have surely been a forgettable attempt at suspense. Everyone else was just awful.I recommend avoiding Haunting at the Beacon. The acting is hardly ever any good, the storyline is mediocre at best, and it's just not worth sitting through 90 minutes of average storytelling just to witness an ending that doesn't justify all those wasted minute it took to get to that point. Avoid.

chains, my baby's got me locked up in chains and the are the kind that you can see,i saw this on shoe2 and am sorry, sorry for for every one in the state of Texas for this death warmed over in a microwave oven rancid roadkill

average not bloody or scary

fast delivery, an ok film

I wish I'd paid attention to the other reviewer before paying for this with my hard earned cash. Its a terrible B Grade movie, the actings bad, the storyline is no better, and I'd rather watch paint dry than watch this again ! Seriously go and choose something else to watch, how movies this bad even get made I just don't know ! Also how its rated R18 is anyones guess as I'd let a 5 year old watch it .