Room 203

Moving into a new apartment together, a pair of friends living together is soon caught up in a wave of mysterious deaths in the building which forces them to look into the grisly history of the apartment where they uncover a connection involving a murderous spirit that's now targeted them.

This was a decent enough if overly formulaic genre effort. What works well here is the general sense of atmosphere and chills that emerge from the apartment. Since the atmosphere is driven by the lack of proper lighting throughout here with the building being renovated, the look of the apartment and the layout here makes the early scenes of shadows in the hallway or loud knocks that no one's around to perform offer some chilling moments. Once it grows in intensity to start including deaths and mysterious disappearances of those around them, the full reveal of everything with the backstory investigating the strange lore about the figure in the apartment. When this leads to the full revelation of the incidents surrounding the apartment haunting and how it all ties together, this one becomes a bit more fun with some brutal kills and hard-hitting chases that take place here which are all enough to make for an enjoyable enough effort. There are some big flaws with the film though. The main issue here is the generally overlong and unnecessary running time that goes on way too long for its own good. The exploits of this come off in several areas as the film is either dug down in an unappealing tempo for what it's trying to do or features elements that aren't that important. There's a lot to like with the romance that blossoms between her and the guy at school but it's just so dully composed that it sucks the life out of the film in much the same way the constant reminders of their past traumas work but slow the film down considerably. Several scare scenes as well follow this tactic of just going on far longer than necessary which includes meandering sequences looking for her after wandering off or the aftermath which enhances the running time. Other stuff, including the traumatic childhood background that keeps getting brought up involving how they're being affected by the tragedy which begins affecting both of them differently, is hammered home to the point that it's not that interesting to witness going through once more. Another factor here is a highly unoriginal and overly familiar setup that turns this one into yet another in a long line of ghost movies that are driven by a specific curse. The initial incidents and accidents that take place at the apartment are more than enough to alert anyone that something's not right about the place, from the mysterious stained-glass painting to the discovery of the strange necklace in the wall and the visions about the figures coming out of the wall as well as the sleepwalking that she's unaware of. These all lead to the investigation of the mysterious figure haunting the apartment building but are so obviously drawn from the same mold as numerous other genre efforts that it's hard to get the same impact from them especially when it signals the incredibly obvious and completely expected series of reveals that aren't in the slightest bit shocking. Overall, these factors end up lowering this one overall.

Rated Unrated/R: Violence and Language.

Acting was a bit amateur at times. The plot was ok, there were some chilling scenes - probably the best part about this film. I have watched horror films where the director couldn't even get the audience to feel any dread but there were a couple of times this film gave good scare effects but I turned off for the last 10 minutes, who knows if I missed the best part, it got so bad towards that point and the story was essentially over when I saw there was another 10 minutes left I just thought meh, director had to drag out the ending which was already a let down. The part that really really bothered me for some reason is the main character hanging up a mirror with a nail the size of a needle and then commanding it to stay! Only to turn around and the thing inevitably comes crashing down. It was a heavy expensive looking mirror and she knew it wasn't going to "stay" so that really annoyed me but the director had to annoy me further by making her then forget within 10 seconds that it had fallen and she walks all over the broken glass (not injuring herself in any way). I don't know why someone breaking an expensive looking mirror like that annoyed me. It added nothing to the film whatsoever, maybe breaking a mirror is bad luck? It's the one thing I took from this film and can't get it out of my head. If her friend had pointed out breaking a mirror was bad luck then it would have redeemed itself for me a little but her friend could barely act and might as well have been a brain dead zombie throughout the whole film instead of the sleep walking alcoholic she was portrayed as.

Didn't understand why the Kim chick never cut on the lights after hearing and seeing strange stuff at night. Except, when getting it on with the geeky dude. And why continue to sleep in a room with a creepy hole in the wall? The couch looked comfortable. Nothing compelling here. Nothing stands out. Ending is the same old same old.

Text: Yes. It's not exactly an original story. But definitely kept my interest! There was a genuine feel for Kim and Izzy, The dark and mysterious tone of the film brought a genuine gothic vibe. I really liked that aspect. The actors overall were solid. I'd give it an 7.5 but I did feel they could have taken it a notch up on the scare. Overall, l'll watch again.

Production , at just half of whats needed in the european el. Outlets. A slow plotted, and not so scary, more like a keltic riddle and a gloryhole in the wall that may swallow you or not, had there been an eye in the wallpaper pattern , it wouldve enhanced the scary feelings alot

its a film with unused potential, the cast do their job within reason and headshaking, but not more than that, the intro section gives hope, the 1st part also, but when the mating and making begins its like a whale stranded.

So its some weird mental stuff to scare the utube generation, not a grumpy old man as me. Long slow and a bit boring would be my secondary headline.