The Apparition

The Apparition (2012)

* (out of 4)

The horror film Warner tried to sneak into theaters and hope no one noticed it. Sadly, I noticed it but thankfully it was only a $5 show (which was still a rip). Couple Kelly (Ashley Greene) and Ben (Sebastian Stan) arrive in a new home only to discover strange things happening. Kelly is all confused but apparently Ben recognizes this "haunting" due to an experiment he did in college where one of his best friends mysteriously vanished. While watching THE APPARITION my mind started to go back to the mid 90's before SCREAM came along and the horror genre was just delivering some pretty awful movies. This here reminded me of one of them because there's really nothing going right in this picture, which starts with an incredibly boring and unscary pre-credits sequence and sadly things just get worse from here. I'm sure in the writing stages people get an idea, look over it, make changes, take away the bad and add some good. They re-work the process until they come up with a story that they can work with. It really does seem that this film just took the first bad idea and filmed it so that they could get anything in a theater before Halloween. The entire story here is just simply bad, laughable and there were times where I just wanted to walk out on it. The entire situation is something I'll avoid spoiling for those who do decide to see the film but it all adds up to a half-baked idea that never works and the ending is just downright stupid. I'd say the studio should be thankful that no one is watching this or else it would probably be getting some heat. The performances aren't anything to write home about but I enjoyed Greene for the most part. THE APPARITION is obviously trying to follow in the PARANORMAL ACTIVITY foot steps but there's not a single scare to be had here.

The moment I realized this was a bad choice was when the 2 leads have a long conversation about going to Costco to buy a damn cactus. And this is in the first 10 minutes... It was the strangest, most cringe worthy product placement I've ever seen. The rest of the movie is nothing but attractive 20 somethings acting dumb and completely unnatural. Plus it is only PG-13, so don't expect much for gore or nudity. Pretty much a fail on all fronts, avoid at all costs.

Someone apparently decided that 'Paranormal Activity' + 'Pulse' + 'The Grudge' = good movie. Sadly in this case the math was way off.

There are interesting ideas here but the execution is lacking. Credit where it's due; Sebastian Stan gives an impressively edgy performance and Tom Felton shows there's more to him than Draco Malfoy (it's a shame he isn't given more to do). Ashley Greene... looks pretty in her underwear. In all honesty she wasn't given much to do here - despite ostensibly being the lead. The cinematography is good - and that's about it.

What should be a straight-forward plot is jumbled by unnecessary elements and images that seem to be included simply because someone thought they'd 'look cool'. It's not enough to take inspiration from great and/or successful horror movies, you need to understand why they were so great and/or successful - and first-time director (and writer) Todd Lincoln apparently doesn't. The opening five minutes hold promise, but it's downhill from there. I like atmospheric chillers, but this is short on atmosphere and the chills are non-existent. 5/10

I first heard about this movie by listening to Coast to Coast AM where the Writer/Director was on talking about this film and how he was inspired by actual events. So I was really anticipating watching this film.

At first it started out pretty interesting but then it took a turn for the worse. I started to not care about what was going on, the characters were a bit annoying and I didn't really care about them one way or another.

The film is not scary, it has its thrilling moments but all in all it's just a typical horror film for the new generation which really means its pathetic.

I think the film would have been awesome if it had followed the group doing the experiment on getting a ghost to appear, in fact that's what I was thinking I was getting into but instead got a cheap shot at a horror film that left me feeling like I had completely wasted my time.

It had some good moments but all in all it's not really worth watching.

Once again something is unlocked.

Will you people never learn lol.

The Apparition is a moderate film at best, starts off better than it ends.

The acting is pretty good, but as the movie unfolds (or unravels) it loses your interest somewhat.

Still it provides a bit of fun and distraction.