After a bad breakup with her college boyfriend, Liz (Mackenzie Firgens, THE HAMILTONS) has moped away most of her spring break at home. Wanting to have a little fun with her friend Ashley (Heather Tocquigny, INSIDIOUS) who invites Liz's high school boyfriend Danny (Jake White, the CHILDREN OF THE CORN remake) along on a trip to the lake. Liz desires something more exciting so Danny suggests a night trip to Preston Castle, California's oldest reform school which was opened from the late 1890's to the 1960's. No mention is made that the landmark is actually open for tours, but the trio are able to sneak into the derelict building rather easily in broad daylight. After a few false scares while exploring the building, Danny tells that Preston Castle is believed to be haunted following the beating death of young inmate Bobby by the other boys who believed him responsible for the death of housekeeper Anna Corbin (who was actually murdered there in 1950 but whose murderer was never discovered). Since then, there have supposedly been multiple deaths and disappearances of anyone who dares to stay the night. When a freaked-out Ashley leaves Liz and Danny to get reacquainted and fails to come back, Liz wants to look for her and mocks Danny's growing fears about things that literally begin to go bump in the night.

Although highly derivative, PRESTON CASTLE is technically well-made and takes advantage of one of California's most striking "haunted" locations and is undemanding entertainment with some effective jumps. Characterization-wise, the film starts out interestingly enough with the freshly-dumped Liz seeming to be the sympathetic character but seeming less so as subsequent scenes demonstrate how far she has grown apart from her two friends who have not managed to get out into the world. All that is out the window of course once Ashley disappears and then Liz and Danny are wandering around in circles searching for her (the dialogue similarly falls back on reiterations of "bad things have happened here" rather than advancing the backstory with additional incidents historical or fabricated for the script). Cross-cutting and fades to black once the characters have split up does rob some of the tension in favor of jump scares, but things pick up considerably once it is just Liz running around terrified as the film cuts back and forth between her and her camcorder (which sometimes picks up things Liz cannot see in front of her). It all ends as expected (including a most-overused ending shot in "found footage" horror movies), but A HAUNTING AT PRESTON CASTLE is diverting enough to take in as Halloween binge-viewing this season.