1303: O Apartamento do Mal

Truly awful movie, never made it past 15mins, even that was kind. Acting? What acting? . You have been warned!. I watch and love a lot of horrors, trust me, this shambles was ruined by too much talking to ones self, too much inane shouting "hello, who's there". Shes just moved into an empty apartment! . I can sum it up really by saying, the acting made me cringe, it really is that bad!. Rebecca da mornay, oaft , whats happened to you. Or were you really always that bad? Poor acting, directing and butchering of what probably coulda been a good movie. Another lazy missed opportunity by American cinema, as i have said, i tried and tried to push through and watch it, but could not fulfil that one simple task, the laziness reeks ouuta the entire production, the dialogue, just makes you feel uncomfortable and not in a suspenseful or deliberate part of the movie, i mean, it just doesn't make sense.

Worst acting Worst directing Worst editing Worst *everything*

I watched because it starred (supporting role) Rebecca DeMorney (sp?). But I was really taken back by her AWFUL acting as well as the awful acting of every other actor in the movie. I was so embarrassed for her performance and wondered why she agreed to play this tacky, tacky part.

Had her acting career started with the caliber of this example, she would never have even met Tom Cruise. (Yes! THAT bad.)

I knew within 10 minutes that this movie was bad. We stopped watching, but I have a hard time leaving a movie unfinished and went back to see the rest of it. HOPING it might improve.

It didn't. Not . one . bit.

It is always nice to discover a well directed horror film. This isn't one of those though. You know those movies where you see the first scene and you know right then and there that it will suck all throughout? This is one of them. It is the kind of movie Hallmark channel would make if Halmark made horror movies. It has the feeling and directing of a Hallmark channel movie, but with a ghost sitting on the toilet. Seriously, it is that bad.

Embarrassingly poor script, acting and directing - along with hardly any 'scary' bits - made watching this movie a chore. I started playing Angry Birds half way through. And I hate Angry Birds.

Another one of those "let's make a foreign movie into a Hollywood version", and yet again, as with so many other such attempts, it failed and was put to shame by the original.

Given the fact that the original Japanese "Apartment 1303" wasn't particularly much to write home about, then you would think that director Michael Taverna would have it nice and easy here to make it into a better remake. You would think so! But wow, this American version of "Apartment 1303" turned out to be even worse and more boring than the original Japanese version.

The storyline is essentially the same as in the Japanese version, a woman movies into an apartment that is haunted by something sinister because of a tragic event that took place in the self same apartment.

This American version of "Apartment 1303" was nowhere even remotely near being scary or spooky in the least bit. And it was a rather pointless and dull experience to sit through. I had initially hoped that Rebecca DeMornay would be able to lift up the movie even just a bit, but that proved not to be the case, as she wasn't given much to work with in this movie.

Some times it is better to not meddle with original versions of movies, and just leave them to what they initially were and are. I strongly suggest that you watch the Japanese version of "Apartment 1303" if you absolutely have to watch this story. However, be warned, you are not in for much of an improvement.

'APARTMENT 1303 3D': One Star (Out of Five)

American remake of the 2007 Japanese horror film ('APARTMENT 1303'), which was based on the book by Kei Oishi. It tells the tale of a haunted apartment that drives it's residents to suicide. The sister of it's latest victim investigates her death and falls victim to the disturbed ghost as well. It was written and directed by Michael Taverna and is his second feature (after the 1996 drama 'MANAGUA', 17 years earlier). It stars Mischa Barton (who's most well known from the popular TV series 'THE O.C.'), Rebecca De Mornay, Julianne Michelle and Corey Sevier. The film is one of the worst horror movies I've seen in years!

Barton stars as Lara Slate, a young woman who's still living with her alcoholic mother, Maddie (De Mornay). Maddie was a successful musician who now drinks her days and nights away, out of depression. Lara and her younger sister, Janet (Michelle), have long had troubled relationships with their mother and Janet has finally decided to do something about her's. She's moved out of her mother's home and into a creepy apartment (1303) in downtown Detroit. She's warned, by a nine-year-old neighbor girl named Emily (Madison McAleer), that several other residents (in that apartment) have committed suicide there. Janet soon winds up having the same fate. Lara is crushed by the news and moves into the apartment to investigate (and away from her abusive mother). She has help from her sister's boyfriend, Mark (Sevier), but soon finds herself haunted by a troubled ghost as well.

I haven't seen the Japanese original but I imagine it has to be a lot better than this turd (fans of it must be outraged). This movie feels like something I could have written in middle school; it pieces together a bunch of random nonsensical scenes that aren't scary and just don't add up to anything. By the time it's over the viewer is thinking 'what the hell did I just watch and what was the point?'. It has no point, it's just a complete waste of time. The acting is atrocious, the mother/daughter drama is painful to watch and both Barton and De Mornay look horrible in the film. The movie just has no redeemable qualities whatsoever. It's an insult not only to the movie it's remaking but to all horror films in general!

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