Beacon Point Review

Beacon Point is the story of a hiking tour group that goes on a journey across the Appalachian Trail and stumbles upon an ancient secret. Presented as a horror film the film originally does a great job of hiding that having an interesting start that was rather calm with only one initial incident and things slowly begin to get bad for everyone involved. It was not only a fairly chilling adventure, but also a beautiful one as the cinematography was great and showed the region very well.

The story was great as each of the characters involved had their own reasons for why they took this journey, but none truly got in the way of the actual narrative as many movies try to push in extra elements that aren't needed. This was truly just a smaller and more intimate film that kept things together while creating an eerie feeling of the unknown. It was one of the better horror films I've seen recently and I loved the balance of keeping it mostly practical while never showing anything that looked unrealistic.

The film's leads were definitely the only female of the group named Zoe (Rae Olivier) and the shady tour guide Drake (Jon Briddell). Not to say the rest of the cast weren't important, but they really just added into the action that surrounded these key players. It worked well and it was great to see a strong, yet still fragile female lead that took charge more than I had predicted. It was also nice to see a good case being built around the tour guide as he slowly began to sink into the crazy events around them.

The film did a great job of being a horror film, but still not directly showing it within the characters. It introduced paranoia within the group instead and focused on only key members knowing bits of what was actually happening. Things also never got too crazy and that kept the narrative streamlined.

The story also kept a good pace with things keeping it subtle and never losing sight of its starting goal to create a chill while never taking it too far at any point. The acting was also well done in regards to all the characters as they had the correct attitudes in their scenarios and reactions without ever making it feel like what was happening was a joke. This helped for adding realism to the structure of the story and kept the tension higher.

The movie also took to mostly being practical which I thought looked great and even the small bit of CGI thrown in was easy to overlook as it was minor being shrouded in darkness. The cinematography was beautiful as the film looked great and it was nice to see the Appalachian Trail shown so nicely as it looks like a great environment.

The Conclusion

I really enjoyed Beacon Point as it was a solid horror film that kept things focused on the group and never gave away too much or lost sight on its focus. The acting was great and I loved the group of characters as none of them were particularly annoying at all.

I felt that the bit strange and out there with opinions tour guide was also great and his progression across the film was a bit terrifying as it seemed quite real for the situation. Beacon Point was a great horror film that allows you to get a nice view of nature in the process of feeling the horrors presented to this group of hikers.

Beacon Point Review at Home with Streamed Viewing
Screening Provided by October Coast Publicity

Rating Overall: 8.8