Apartment 143 (Emergo) (limited/VOD)
| release date | April 27 2012 |
| studio | Magnolia Pictures |
| director | Carles Torrens |
| writer | Rodgrigo Cortes |
| starring | Kai Lennox, Michael O'Keefee, Gia Mantegna, Rick Gonzalez, Fionna Glascott, Francesc Garrido |
| trailer 1 | Trailer #1 |
1 Comments
Extremely boring. Nothing new nor scary here.
This movie was extremely boring and offered nothing new to the found footage genre. As for “revolutionizing film-making all together” this film did nothing of the sort. Unless, of course you want to use it as an instructional what-not-to-do video. While their were some mid level actors attached to this the acting itself was flat and mediocre. The film built no tension, nor added much build up or back story, it all just sort of happened. And with little or confusing explanation. The overly dramatic sound effects made NO SENSE since this is a “found footage” film, and the jump scares didn’t work in a home theater setting. The film in it’s final act was laughable and made little sense. Overall I’d skip this movie completely. Not even worth it for free.
Apartment 143 had the classic setup with building tension and suspense, which came along with every passing scene. The apartment was the perfect setting for a haunting and delivered some chilling scares. As far as found footage horror films go Apartment 143 was quite typical though. The film wasn’t bad but it wasn’t great either and had very little payoff.
The performances were above average for this type of film, as they are one of the best I’ve seen. Kai Lennox, who plays the widow father Alan White of a son and a daughter, gives an especially gripping performance. The young actors Gia Mantegna and Damian Roman also give exceptional performances for unknowns as Caitlin White and Benny White. Not too shabby for an independent horror film.
Director, Carles Torrens is off to a decent start for his first full-length film. With the probably limited budget he created the effects wisely to effective results, especially the hauntingly spooky last scene. I have to say that I won’t mind and I’m curious to see what his next effort will bring us.
Writer/Director Rodrigo Cortes, who is mostly known so far for the terrifying premise but also very little payoff, Buried. His new story/screenplay brought another terrifying premise with building tension, but the payoff/ending was just weak. I liked how it dug deep down to why the struggling family of three is being haunted by an unknown ghost. When the dad finally broke down a revealed the family’s dark secrets, it was heartbreaking, but then the film lost some if most of its suspense. Rodrigo Cortes, has the talent to write intriguing premises but to me he needs to work on writing better, more satisfying conclusions. I’m interested to see what his next effort Red Lights will bring us though.
Overall, Apartment 143 should deserve some credit for its good effort into the found footage genre. The pace wasn’t that sluggish and some of the scares were solid and you feel for the family, with the horrors they endure thanks to fine, believable performances. In the end though the film does nothing to reignite this slowly repetitive, fading genre. It’s not the bottom worst of its kind but it’s not the top best unfortunately. Rent for a better than expected, decent if cheap spook. 6 out of 10.
10X more entertaining than than Paranormal Activity 1 & 2! If you’re anything like me, you were bored and annoyed by PA 1&2. The characters rarely checked the footage and mostly had no clue what was going on in their house despite the fact that they put of cameras with the idea that they would actually watch them. They also repeatedly showed us footage that was not scary, not unsettling, just random shots of the pool and front door step, but when something really happens, they show you footage from the wrong camera. If it’s found footage– show me the parts that show things happening. Thankfully, here we got one of those movies that wants to show you shocking footage instead of a hallway with nothing in it. It’s very refreshing considering these boring films that scare the Twilight crowd. While some of the characters (the main investigator especially) seem to have odd theories on how to conduct this investigation, I find it invigorating how the expert is wrong. Typically we get old people who seem to know everything and dumb stuff down for the audience, but not here. Instead of that old psychic that the ahole character calls nutjob, we get an actual nut job with a decent team of assistants that have no idea what they are up against. Full of scares, some a wee bit cheap (not as cheap as PA3), this film keeps you on your toes. Any moment could have ghost– and not a shadow that fades in and than fades out but something that is really there, and you can’t deny it. The acting is decent. The father is a pretty believable character who is very conflicted over his family’s past tragedies, and his teen daughter feels so typical that we can see her slamming our own doors. Parts I enjoyed in the single viewing experience is that they explore the footage that was shot and go over it. Often in found footage films you ened up having to rewatch parts yourself because you can’t tell what you were supposed to see, so it was fun that the film did that for you. This is by no means a classic or one of the best found footage films out there, but if you were bored and frustrated with the PA franchise like I was, this could be a fun change of pace.
This was an okay movie, there wasn’t anything special or “Oh my God” about it, but it was okay.
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