The Beacon (2009)
While trying to get their lives back on track after the loss of their four-year-old son, Bryn and Paul Shaw move to the charming old Beacon Apartments. Bryn begins seeing a ghostly little boy skulking around the building. With the help of an eccentric young professor who works with Paul, Bryn tries to uncover the details of the boy's death and in turn bring some closure to her own personal tragedy.
What initially drew me to the film was it's two stars - Teri Polo as Bryn Shaw and David Rees Snell as Paul. Both are excellent character actors as typified with their long running performances in The West Wing (Polo) and The Shield (Rees Snell). I suppose the two carried the film in the first half as the plot took it's time to get into full stride. Instead introducing us to the Beacon apartments and the assortment of characters residing there including the sultry Elaine Hendrix as a down n' out actress currently making a living as a website dominatrix and Michael Ironside as a local beat cop.
As the central story takes control there are a few twists and turns, especially at the finale, but it never becomes convoluted nor does the film rely on jump scares or gore as it slowly gets under your finger nails and grabs the attention. It's not a teen style movie, it's for adults and played by adults with an over whelming sense of melancholia throughout and for those that stick with it the pay off is very nicely done.
As the end credits rolled it was clear the film makers were influenced by The Sentinel (1977) and Don't Look Now (1973). Two superior films to this, however for those that like well made modern ghost stories The Beacon may just be up your street. I for one enjoyed it!
The UK dvd goes under the name of The Wrong Apartment.
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