The Apparition (2012) Ashley Greene, Sebastian Stan, Tom Felton, Julianna Guill Movie Review

The Apparition (2012)   2/52/52/52/52/5


Sebastian Stan and Ashley Greene in The Apparition (2012)

It Appears Again

Ben (Sebastian Stan) and Kelly (Ashley Greene) are young, in love and settling in to their beautiful new home together. But their happiness is interrupted by a series of strange events from waking up and discovering their doors have been opened in the night to strange marks appearing on the floors, ceilings and work surfaces. As the strange occurrences become increasingly frequent they call in the help of paranormal specialist Patrick (Tom Felton) to check out their home. But it seems that Ben may know what is going on having once worked with Patrick in an experiment to contact the dead which went terrifyingly wrong.

Prior to "The Apparition" writer and director Todd Lincoln had helmed a few shorts but nothing you would call substantial and it doesn't surprise me as this horror movie is semi solid whilst extremely safe. From the storyline which sees a couple being haunted to scenes of electrical equipment going on the blink there is little in "The Apparition" which you won't feel like you have come across before.

Tom Felton in The Apparition (2012)

Now I did call "The Apparition" semi solid and what seems to be an issue here is that Todd Lincoln not only directed the movie he also wrote it and probably had to do some editing to make it fit within budgets and keeping it under 90 minutes. But in doing so the flow of the movie is not there and at times there is simply too much unexplained going on which never gets fully explained. This gives it a knock on effect of feeling like he has tossed cliche scenes at us because they never really get tied in to how and why they are happening.

Despite all this "The Apparition" certainly has a visual presence which is partly down to the fact that Ashley Greene is attractive and has that hot girl next door thing going on. But credit should also go to cinematographer Daniel Pearl who gives the movie a beautiful tone which helps massively to draw you in to things especially during the first half.

What this all boils down to is that "The Apparition" is nothing special, it is derivative, flawed and only ever average at best. But as a debut movie it has some good bits which go some ways to make up for any issues.


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