140. Dark Beacon; movie review

DARK BEACON
Cert TBA
75 mins
BBFC advice: TBA

Crikey - it's been a long time since I watched a movie which I felt was too short.
Corrie Greenop's movie lasts only 75 minutes but it contains little of the information and explanation which would have helped make it the thrilling movie its makers wanted it to be.
So, while I was glad it was over, I had to admit it should have been longer.
This is an award-winning horror and yet I would have been more terrified if I had been licked by a Labrador.
There is also meant to be sexual frisson between its main characters but there would have been more between a garden gnome and a lamp post.
As readers will know, I try to support British indie films but I am bewildered at the plaudits of this movie and am intrigued as to what the judges saw that I didn't.
The premise is that a former advertising executive, Amy (April Pearson) has gone in search of her former love, Beth (Lynne Anne Rodgers), and found her living with her mute daughter (Kendra Mei) in a lighthouse.
I am not too sure why she was so difficult to track down because this was the home of her deceased husband (Toby Osmond).
Who knows whether they lived there as a family because this is one of myriad unanswered questions.
Anyway, there are clearly unsettling goings-on in the aforementioned lighthouse, particularly after Pearson's character arrives.
There is a lack of spark in Dark Beacon which really lets it down.
The audience is left to presume that the two main characters split up acrimoniously but the precise detail is omitted as is explanation of why Beth takes Amy in again without so much as a quibble.
As the days pass, we would expect the pair to reminisce about what has happened in the past but there is only a peripheral touch on it.
This superficiality, combined with a weak dialogue, meant that I was never bought into the characters.
Thus, I was both relieved and regretful about its 75-minute running time. Relieved that it was all over and regretful tat the plot holes had not been filled

Reasons to watch: Judges at two festivals have applauded it as a quality hortor
Reasons to avoid: I cannot see what they did

Laughs: None
Jumps: None
Vomit: None
Nudity: None
Overall rating: 2/10

Director quote - Corrie Greenop: "Originally I saw a lighthouse on the Isle of Skye in the middle of nowhere. It was an eerie, weird building in an isolated location so a great place for a horror film."

The big question - How does a film qualify as a horror?

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