Homes, hotels, and mansions infested by ghosts, ghoulies, or demons pose a prime premise for horror films, save for one fact: the motivation for the paranormal presence’s persecution of the living seldom has much rhyme or reason. Far too often writers of this particular subgenre seem content with the rationale of “we resent you because we’re dead and you’re alive” or they mention something akin to territorialism and just hope audiences don’t question the flimsy reason too much. To help distract from it all, they pass off the tension created by the resulting characters’ hysteria at seeing dead folks walking about as a commentary on some social impropriety or whim. The point? It’s hard to make a compelling haunted house movie that isn’t patently ridiculous, and Haunting at the Beacon proves just that.
In a plot almost ripped directly from Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark, a couple (Teri Polo and David Rees Snell), still reeling from the death of their son, move into a new place in the apartment complex known as The Beacon. As the husband gets his footing teaching nearby, the wife has plenty of time to spend alone in the apartment where she spies a young boy playing in the elevator. Her conviction that it’s the dead child of a family that recently vacated the place drives her into an increasingly volatile state of mind as she tries to convince those around her that what she’s seeing is real. Eventually, when she decides the boy is a ghost, she adopts a new plan and tries to pass a message to her dead son in a hairbrained story line added on when Teri Polo sobbing and begging for others to believe became cloying. I’m sorry, but assuming that all ghosts know each other is like asking every Canadian you meet if they know your friend Stephan who grew up in Montreal. Meanwhile, the husband gets his own completely misplaced storyline in the form of a temptress trying to seduce him away from his wife.
DVD Bonus Features
An audio commentary is all you get, and really it’s nothing special but it just might be better than watching the film normally.
"Haunting at the Beacon" is on sale September 13, 2011 and is rated R. Horror. Written and directed by Michael Stokes. Starring Michael Ironside, Teri Polo, David Rees Snell.
