Apparition does little to bring anything new to the genre of horror, but avoids obvious pratfalls that doom better stories. The cast is made up of B-level actors from powerhouse franchises, such as Harry Potter and Twilight, but you wouldn’t know it. With even a mediocre script I would expect more from both Ashley Greene and Tom Felton, but was disappointed at their stereotypical acting. I was more terrified by the trailer for the upcoming Paranormal Activity 4 than I was throughout the entire movie.
The story revolves around a move into a new house, the happy couple, Kelly and Ben, the latter played by Sebastian Stan, begin to discover strange things going on in the house. Ben seems to be unfazed by this, but Kelly becomes increasingly troubled. Things come to a head when Kelly discovers found footage on Ben’s computer of he and his friends trying to bring a ghost into our world. Of course, things don’t go according to plan and Ben’s then-girlfriend vanishes into thin air. The ghost is continuing to haunt the last remaining people who tried to bring the being to life, including Patrick, played by Tom Felton. Once he joins them, they try to send the entity back where it came from. They perform an anti-séance and think the trouble has vanished, but it hasn’t. It consumes Patrick and goes after Kelly and Ben. To avoid giving away anymore of the tepid story, the ending lacks punch, but wraps up in under an hour and a half.
What this movie lacks in ingenuity it makes up for in boredom. There were scares, don’t get me wrong. I covered my eyes at varying intervals, but scares that you don’t expect are the only thing the movie truly delivers. The story never truly resolves itself, the ending leaving the audience in the throes of wondering what happened, and possibly realising it was the villain that won. As I said before, I expected more from Greene and Felton. They both delivered textbook wooden performances, showing little range outside of what I imagine was a mediocre script. I know I shouldn’t throw stones in a glass house, but this is one of those movies where you look at the cast, the budget, which wasn’t meagre, and wonder what went wrong. The story had potential, but fell flat. Who’s to blame? I blame myself for hoping that Greene and Felton would deliver great performances in their first really outings outside of Twilight and Potter, but that didn’t happen. This is a rental, maybe.
The story revolves around a move into a new house, the happy couple, Kelly and Ben, the latter played by Sebastian Stan, begin to discover strange things going on in the house. Ben seems to be unfazed by this, but Kelly becomes increasingly troubled. Things come to a head when Kelly discovers found footage on Ben’s computer of he and his friends trying to bring a ghost into our world. Of course, things don’t go according to plan and Ben’s then-girlfriend vanishes into thin air. The ghost is continuing to haunt the last remaining people who tried to bring the being to life, including Patrick, played by Tom Felton. Once he joins them, they try to send the entity back where it came from. They perform an anti-séance and think the trouble has vanished, but it hasn’t. It consumes Patrick and goes after Kelly and Ben. To avoid giving away anymore of the tepid story, the ending lacks punch, but wraps up in under an hour and a half.
What this movie lacks in ingenuity it makes up for in boredom. There were scares, don’t get me wrong. I covered my eyes at varying intervals, but scares that you don’t expect are the only thing the movie truly delivers. The story never truly resolves itself, the ending leaving the audience in the throes of wondering what happened, and possibly realising it was the villain that won. As I said before, I expected more from Greene and Felton. They both delivered textbook wooden performances, showing little range outside of what I imagine was a mediocre script. I know I shouldn’t throw stones in a glass house, but this is one of those movies where you look at the cast, the budget, which wasn’t meagre, and wonder what went wrong. The story had potential, but fell flat. Who’s to blame? I blame myself for hoping that Greene and Felton would deliver great performances in their first really outings outside of Twilight and Potter, but that didn’t happen. This is a rental, maybe.
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