I like being scared and getting the chills, something a good horror movie should induce. The Apparition doesn’t do either and on top of that doesn’t entertain in the slightest. It also proves that outside of the Twilight films Ashley Greene is a truly horrendous actress and should only stick to being a second-rate background performer.
The film opens somewhat strong with a seance scene that goes terribly wrong. Then we meet Kelly (Greene) and Ben (Sebastian Stan), a sad-looking couple living in a new house in an empty subdivision in the middle of nowhere. They live on take-out food, shop at Costco and say stupid, irritating things to each other (watching them interact was a chore to sit through). When weird things begin to happen to the house, such as doors opening in the night and mold growing all over place, we find out that Ben was at the seance in the beginning and whatever they released during it is coming for him.
This is all pretty straightforward haunted house stuff and yet writer-director Todd Lincoln couldn’t even pull off a jump scare or two. The whole movie is flat and boring and has absolutely no atmosphere and shows a real lack of talent across the board. Even the score, which is key to making a good scary movie, is totally wrong and sounds like it should have been used in a movie about ecstasy users instead of ghosts.
Besides Greene’s embarrassing performance, Stan and Tom Felton, who stars as the only person who can stop the inevitable, both float through the film without even trying to look interested in being in it. It doesn’t help that the dialogue they’re given to speak is so atrociously awkward that whenever they opened their mouths it sounded like they were reading off of cue cards (I swear I saw Greene squint and look off-camera for her lines once).
The Apparition is not just one of the worst films of the year, it is one of the worst films ever made. To put it into perspective it makes The Devil Inside look like the The Exorcist. Hopefully it will die a quick box office death and be forgotten by September.
Rating: 
Rated PG
Cast: Ashley Greene, Tom Felton, Sebastian Stan
Directed by: Todd Lincoln
Top image: A scene from The Apparition. Courtesy Warner Bros.
