Apartment 143

Ok, I'll be honest here. I'm trying to figure out why I didn't hate this film. :)

There are several things making it difficult to love APARTMENT 143.

The first thing is having seen all the elements present in this films in previous horror films that were better. Haunting, strange images on video, camera mounted around that we the viewer observe from and jump scare set pieces. You've seen it all before, which isn't a bad thing when it's done well. These folks do fine in the presentation. It's just...fine.


The second major stumbling block is the strange and flat performance from Michael O'Keefe. He was pretty darn good at one point. THE GREAT SANTINI...CADDYSHACK...MICHAEL CLAYTON. But, in this it's like he's on something that inhibits human emotion. He mumbles lines blankly - not BADLY, just blankly. Like his soul has been removed.

And lastly, the story is strange. I'm not sure how else to state it. Strange. Strange in a, "Oh...hmph...ok...that actually makes sense and I didn't see it coming," way. A good thing seeing as I usually manage to guess what's up half way through the film.


But, I think this is where the Why don't I hate this film? comes into play. I don't hate it because of the story. We have a lot of those "seen it" elements in here from a story perspective as well. Kids with a single father items, paranormal investigators and the investigation of a possible haunting in a small and seemingly isolated apartment. ( Hell, my neighbors play the music a little too loud and I want to start banging on walls, but screams? )

But, the execution is good and the acting works. That's huge. We're not talking bad, D List acting school acting. These folks are pretty good. They take time (SEE: Ti West Time - I'm working on getting that minted) to let people chat from time to time. To interact with each other. And, it's actually someone interesting. The science in the film seems fine, though I thought the camera work by a hand held camera in a scene of utter chaos was a bit clean. It was appreciated, however. After V/H/S, my mind needed a bit of a verité break. :)

It's also interesting that this film's original title was EMERGO. Yes, I looked it up. 

Italian • Verb • emergo  • first-person singular present indicative of emergere

I had to laugh. Tossing a title like emergo on a film like this would be really hard to sell to the masses. Sure, I'd still hunt it down and watch it, but that's not going to be the norm.

So...seeing as APARTMENT 143 is on Netflix streaming right now, it's not a bad film to invest time into. I'd love it if you did and posted what you thought of the film here or on the Facebook page, actually. I'd love to know what other people think!




Talk to me. :)