THE APPARITION (Todd Lincoln). 82 minutes. Opens Friday (August 24). See listing. Rating: N
The Apparition looks like it ran out of money and lost its writer before it finished shooting. How else to describe the jumble of disconnected imagery, plot lines and characters that go nowhere and the most anticlimactic final scene (given away in the misleading trailer, not to mention the poster) of any recent horror film?
Twilight’s Ashley Greene and Gossip Girl’s Sebastian Stan play Kelly and Ben, a young couple taking care of her mom’s big old suburban home in a bizarrely deserted neighbourhood. Unbenownst to Kelly, Ben’s earlier involvement in a paranormal experiment has unleashed some entity that begins by moving dressers around and graduates to spreading a particularly nasty form of mould in corners and under floorboards.
Every element of Todd Lincoln’s debut film feels derivative, from the Grudge-like effects to the Paranormal Activity-like furniture rearranging.
It’s a pastiche of hoary clichés, like the opening credits of The X-Files expanded to feature length.
