Apartment 143
2012 ‘Emergo’ Directed by Carles Torrens
Synopsis
The First Real Ghost Story.
A team of parapsychologists sets out to investigate a series of anomalous phenomena taking place in a newly occupied apartment. Telephone calls with no caller, mysterious shadows, extraordinary light emissions, flying objects, and exploding light bulbs are some of the events they will face while recording their every step with state-of-the-art technology. Using infrared filming, digital photography, psychophonic recordings, movement detectors, and magnetic field alteration meters, the group’s attempts to contact the “other side” will grow increasingly dangerous as they near a point of no return.
Studio
Popular reviews
More-
Ah, now, let's see, a found footage film.
- annoying shaky camera work? _________check
- footage that makes absolutely no sense? _________check
- one or two scenes that are rather scary that betray a creativity they should have tapped into more often but sadly didn't? _________check
- you uttering at least twice: "Now why the hell are they still filming?" _______check
A decently acted wasteland of missed opportunities.
-
Apartment 143 is a perfectly functional haunted house (or haunted apartment to be pedantic) tale that would obviously be far more rewarding if we hadn't seen it all before in the likes of Paranormal Activity and Grave Encounters. The faux documentary technique is well utilised, albeit more a budgetry necessity than a dramatic narrative tool I'd imagine. Still, this affords the opportunity for plenty of pernicious poltergeist and possession setpieces and a couple of genuinely well constructed scares, not least of which the very final shot which is a cracker.
-
“Who are you? Why are you here? Are you dead?”
-Dr. Helzer (Michael O’Keefe)Film 15 of 35 of The Found Footage/Mockumentary Project.
Apartment 143 is another in a long, long line of found footage films, following the success of Peli’s Activity series. In it, we follow a team of parapsychologists trying to figure out a strange phenomenon occurring in an apartment building.
It’s very much standard fare, and has all the staples of the genre thrown in. Herein lies the films biggest flaw, though. It does very little to differentiate itself from the usual suspects, with cheap scares and commonly overused genre tricks.The problem is that it seems happy to just exist for fans of the genre, and…
-
I looked at the reviews and ratings of my fellow Letterboxers, and I figured I could dip into another piece of mediocre and poorly made garbage. Seriously, it's a found footage horror ghost story where the most recognizable star is Ben off the canceled CW show Reaper.
But as DirkH pointed out, I could do a lot worse. And indeed this film is, as I joked, like Poltergeist after the piece of crap that was Greystone Park.
Anyway, this film brings us a trio of parapsychologists examining and attempting to end a ghostly crisis in the life of a middle-aged widower and father of 2. And really, that's about it. A pretty simple and mostly straight-forward plot with a few…
-
Their neighbors must be pissed...
-
Above average found footage movie with some nice scares and interesting story.
Recent reviews
More-
e-MEH-rgo
-
Yeah...what!?
To sum up, lots of ghostly phenomena happens, the daughter acts possessed, the Dr comes to the conclusion that's she's just schizophrenic and that none of this shit (like levitating, eyes rolling into the back of heads, demonic voices) are related to the paranormal ...or something.
Jump scare. The End.
-
¿Cuántas más pinche found footage? ¿cuántas más?
-
I looked at the reviews and ratings of my fellow Letterboxers, and I figured I could dip into another piece of mediocre and poorly made garbage. Seriously, it's a found footage horror ghost story where the most recognizable star is Ben off the canceled CW show Reaper.
But as DirkH pointed out, I could do a lot worse. And indeed this film is, as I joked, like Poltergeist after the piece of crap that was Greystone Park.
Anyway, this film brings us a trio of parapsychologists examining and attempting to end a ghostly crisis in the life of a middle-aged widower and father of 2. And really, that's about it. A pretty simple and mostly straight-forward plot with a few…
-
Caitlin needs a good slap in the face.
-
This was not a good movie. There a a few good parts, but the film fails to realize that what makes a good scene with a lot of shit happening is that they don't happen every five minutes. This has many cool ideas, but the way they are presented severely hinder the film.
-
Competent, but dull "found footage"-type horror flick. Nothing new. A few jumps (cheap ones), and, I suppose, a slight twist on the standard formula keep it from being a total pass. For the most part it was a chore to get through, even at under 90 minutes. I'm sure you could find a better way to waste your time.
-
Decently done, but pretty boring.
-
Another in the long line of found footage films that seem to be emerging from just about everywhere these days. This one wasn’t awful and actually has a few decent moment here and there. It does suffer from to much happening to quickly. The investigators enter the apartment and straight away stuff starts banging all over the place. This looses potential build up and it’s a shame because later in the film there is a decent scene involving a strobe light and a panning camera that although you can see what’s coming from a mile off, it does come across pretty creepy. The characters are all decent, I particularly liked the doctor who was extremely monotone and clinical, and I thought that worked really well. The final scene is maybe a little too much with the shot of the ceiling, but overall a half decent watch.