Haunting at the Beacon – DVD Review
The Flick:
Paul and Bryn Shaw (David Rees Snell and Teri Polo) move into an apartment building called the Beacon close to the college where Paul is starting an associate professor job. Bryn is in the process of recovering from a nervous break down that lead to a suicide attempt after the disappearance of their young son, Danny, three years before. While still settling into their new home, Bryn keeps spotting a little boy around the building, and hearing violent arguments coming from the apartment next door. Having reason to believe that the boy lives in said apartment, Bryn calls the police. This is when she discovers that the boy, Ronny, died in the building due to an apparent accident. And the next door apartment where the boy did actually live has been empty for months. Bryn’s husband, Paul, and her sister, Christina (Marnette Patterson), believe that she is having a relapse of her breakdown.
Meanwhile, Paul starts flirting with Vanessa (Elaine Hendrix), a failed actress who also lives in the building. A situation that is tempting him to stray from Bryn. Christina is also doing the same with another resident of the Beacon, Will (Nick Sowell). Their exchanges are almost all filled with sexual innuendoes and double entendres. This is meant to be cute and charming, but instead comes off as unnatural and groan worthy. Then there’s Officers Karasic and Ford (Kelli Dawn Hancock and Ken Howard, respectively) who are called in to check out the disturbance in the next door apartment. Karasic was demoted from detective to uniform cop, and wants to investigate what’s going on with Bryn for some unclear reason. By the end of the film we realize that she’s just a functionary of the climax. A bookend of sorts.
At first glance Haunting at the Beacon may look like it’s a riff on J-Horror, but it’s style doesn’t really inform that notion. In its beginning scenes I got a sense that it had a Lifetime Channel feel to it. Writer/director Michael Stokes (writer, Shadowbuilder), with the aid of composer John Majkut, do create a good, albeit mildly unsettling mood. But, as the film reaches its climax it becomes clear that there are too many unnecessary scenes and characters who populate them. The narrative gears get clogged up about the midsection of the film. The sister and the two cops should’ve been dropped at the scripting stage. There’s already Michael Ironside as another cop; there’s no real need for the others. Besides, less characters mean less bad actors to work against the film’s leads. Polo gives it her all in this part. Snell and Hendrix also are very good. The worst performance has to be Ken Howard (TV’s The White Shadow); he just looks tired and bored.
The DVD:
Audio/Video
The film’s image is nice and crisp and clear on the DVD. Don Reddy’s cinematography is well presented here. Though he does light some scenes a little too brightly, for my taste. The sound is full and rich in DTS 5.1, which is how I experienced this film. But, there’s also Dolby 2.0 and Dolby 5.1.
Special Features
There are only two extras on this disc: a theatrical trailer and a director/producer commentary. My favorite DVD extras are commentaries, especially one’s from directors. This one has nice production tidbits and insights. It was confirmed for me that beside the obvious influence of Michael Winner’s The Sentinel, that Peter Medak’s The Changeling was an inspiration to this production. If I actually liked this film I would’ve liked the commentary more.
The Flick: Rating: 
The DVD: Rating:
