APARTMENT 143 (2012) Review

Directed by: Carles Torrens

Starring: Kai Lennox, Michael O'Keefe, Rick Gonzalez

By now I'm really starting to get fed up with all of the disappointing found footage/POV horror flicks which seem to be released every other week. After noticing that all of the reviews on its IMDb page were positive however, I decided that I would give APARTMENT 143 the benefit of the doubt. Hopefully this is the last time  I make that mistake.

As most found footage films this one starts off suddenly without any opening credits or titles. A handheld camera helps to introduce a trio of paranormal investigators in a van on their way to an apparently haunted apartment. When they arrive they talk to the three inhabitants, father Alan (Lennox) and his son and daughter. They are told that strange occurrences have been happening in the apartment and  actually started to happen in the house the three lived in before they moved to said apartment. Alan talks about his late wife who was killed in a car accident and his young son tells the investigators that he has actually spoken to his dead mother. The trio set up their fancy equipment and settle in to wait for some strange happenings. We are then treated to (or maybe subjected to) pretty much every cliché you've ever seen in a paranormal flick. Doors slam closed on their own, lights flicker, items fly around the rooms, bed sheets are tugged at by invisible hands, ghostly figures appear in the background of photographs and so on.

Most of these events are captured and followed through the use of mounted cameras in a very PARANORMAL ACTIVITY style display. This footage is supplemented with shaky handheld camera footage and a soundtrack of the usual creaks, groans, screams and loud noises.

The investigators are accompanied by all manner of hi-tech equipment (one machine is even pixelated as though it's top secret or illegal), the functions of which are explained by very thin and vague descriptions that don't really explain much at all. 

The actors seem to do a good enough job but the characters are all completely unlikeable. The father is a spineless wimp, his daughter is a little bitch and the investigators grill the poor man like he's committed some kind of crime. I spent half the movie hoping they would just die already.

The movie takes it's time developing the characters but I felt that it delved a little too deeply into the relationship between father and daughter. These paranormal investigators (laughably calling themselves 'scientists') seem to think that they're counsellors or psychologists.

By the time the credits showed up I felt like I had just watched another tired PA rehash that brought absolutely nothing new to the table. It relied too heavily on cheap jump-scares and clichés and ended up being a below average ghost flick. I recommend you give this one a miss.