What makes it different from others?

Disturbing yet enthralling

Blending excellent reporting and strong storytelling, this is a disturbing film truly stranger than fiction

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

This movie is a secret gem! I stumbled upon it by accident and it is one of the best haunting movies I have ever seen, and I think I have seen them all. The beginning reads like your run of the mill horror story; a couple, who lost their child, move to a new city to make a fresh start and save their relationship. Things start to go weird and none of the characters stops to think and investigate. But then the story gets more interesting, with excellent acting from David Rees Snell, Elaine Hendrix and Teri Polo. The story moves along nicely without any annoying characters you urgently want to die and without cheap frights making you jump like so many other movies of that genre. The totally unpredictable ending was really good and not your run of the mill, seen before, story. Loved it! Truly haunting!

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.

I'd like to start off simply by saying that I think this movie is terrible. In my case, I fell asleep 35 minutes into it last night, and resumed watching it a few hours ago.When The Beacon was finished, I was filled with so many angry questions about the plot holes and terrible acting, I had to go outside and smoke a cigarette and scream into the night sky.I actually WANT you to watch this movie, so I can point out some basic flaws that come to mind. Just keep them in mind when watching the film. The following things in The Beacon annoyed me: 1) The woman cop's acting was more painful than getting my nipples pierced. I was wincing at every line she spoke. Try not to turn off the movie until you've seen her final scene. Just Wow.2) This movie SERIOUSLY does not get interesting until about the last 20 minutes. Until then, the ghost-story clichés were spread all over this plot like butter on a warm roll -- but The Beacon's butter is bad and will give you diarrhea, as it did for me.3) The LAST 20 minutes of this movie is completely absurd and contradicts the entire story up to that point. I had to re-watch it a few times just to confirm the plot holes. The ironic part is, these aren't really "plot holes" because it uses the "ghosts can do whatever they want whenever they want" formula. Using this formula, filmmakers can create incoherent films that succeed using common scare tactics that make the audience jump and then roll their eyes.The Beacon is like the Nickelback of ghost story horror films: Most people will probably like it. But if you do, you are probably of a lesser intelligence than me.

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.