The Apparition

Suburban Suspense

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Rated: PG-13  Terror/frightening images and some sensuality
Release Date: August 24, 2012
Runtime:  1 hour 22 minutes

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Director: Todd Lincoln
Writers: Todd Lincoln
Cast:  Ashley Greene, Sebastian Stan, Tom Felton, Julianna Guill, Luke Pasqualino, Rick Gomez, Anna Clark

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SYNOPSIS:  Plagued by frightening occurrences in their home, Kelly and Ben learn that a university's parapsychology experiment produced an entity that is now haunting them, feeding on the couple's fear and tormenting the couple no matter where they run.

REVIEW: Todd Lincoln, writer/director/producer of documentaries and shorts like Leave Luck to Heaven, takes his first hack at the horror genre with The Apparition. In this fright film, Lincoln preys upon the concept of belief. If you belief that something supernatural is tormenting you, that belief will make the presence manifest and able to kill you.

In the 1970s, a group of people attempt to conjure the spirit of Charles Reavers. During the seance, strange things occurs and furniture bounce. Notated as the "Charles Experiment", no one had attempted to repeat the experiment until years later when a group of university parapsychology students attempt to recreate the same conditions using more modern technology. Unfortunately, student Patrick (Tom Felton, Rise of the Planet of the Apes), Lydia (Julianna Guill, Crazy, Stupid, Love), and Greg (Luke Pasqualino, The Borgias) release something into our world that they cannot control. In Southern California, in the Dulce Crest subdivision, Kelly (Ashley Greene, The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 1) and Ben (Sebastian Stan, Captain America: The First Avenger) spend their days at in-between jobs and their nights house-sitting for Kelly's mother's investment property. One night, while Kelly and Ben sleep, the alarms appear to have been by-passed, the doors swing wide open, and a strange mold begins to spread across parts of the house. Soon, the seemingly harmless noises and occurrences become something more sinister and tormenting. As a malevolent force becomes violent, even the help from Ben's college friend Patrick may not be enough to stop the apparition from manifesting completely in our world.

The Apparition is the first full fledged horror flick of the fall season. ParaNorman may have arrived in theaters first, but its stop-motion silliness really can't be counted for true horror. First time full feature writer/director takes a stab at a genre that appeals to be very dedicated fan base. With just as many good films as bad, as much good suspense as poorly executed slop, it takes an unique and great story to cut through the nocturnal noise. With echoes of Silent Hill, Pulse, Drag Me To Hell, and Insidious, The Apparition is not anything new, but is handled with care.

Set in the Southern Californian new unfinished subdivision of Dulce Crest, Kelly and Ben set up residence in a half-finished culdesac with only one other house sold to a father, daughter, and dog. With modern homes on a sprawling arid landscape, 'For Sale' signs hanging on posts in light breezes, and shopping completed in big box, bulk stores, the setting for a malevolent force seems too ordinary. Where are the historical old buildings, the dark cabins in the woods, and the indian burial grounds? Instead we are faced with an ordinary house on an ordinary curving street, next to other homes with their own ordinary facades. Insidious, Poltergeist, and the Paranormal Activity franchise make best use of the supernatural set within the mundane and the everyday. Lincoln makes great use of long still camera work on the house's exteriors and slow expanding tracked shots of the interior, the tower power lines humming in the background, making even stuccoed facades something more foreboding.

In addition to solid camera work that adds dread to the most ordinary of landscapes and structures, Lincoln and team assembled a solid young cast with plenty of experience on major projects. Ashley Greene has The Twilight Saga franchise on her resume, but must embody a girl unsure of her belief in the supernatural. Sebastian Stan worked opposite the Star Spangled Avenger Captain America as Bucky Barnes, trading in the Second World War for a taste of suspenseful suburbia. Tom Felton follows up his career making Draco Malfoy from the Harry Potter series with another solid role as the obsessed parapsychologist and desperate Patrick.

The Apparition is dreadful with a solid cast and story, but fails to deliver on the big scares. I will give Lincoln props for one great blind-sided jolt, but the rest falls into the suspense category not the horror category. The music by 'tomandandy' uses buzzing hums and horns instead of the typical screeching strings section to raise the foreboding in a different manner.

Todd Lincoln writes and directs The Apparition, bringing his first full-length feature efforts to theaters after the hype of the summer tentpole blockbusters. Suspenseful, but not really scary, the film redeems itself with good cinematography, an experienced cast, and a few good story sequence twists. The Apparition will probably not be in your horror DVD library as a favorite, but it is a solid effort.

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WORTH:  DVD or Rental

Gone

Going, Going...

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Rated: PG-13 Drug references, brief language, some sexual material, and violence and terror.
Release Date: February 24, 2012
Runtime: 1 hr 35 mins

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Director:  Heitor Dhalia

Writers: Allison Burnett
Cast:  Amanda Seyfried, Daniel Sunjata, Jennifer Carpenter, Sebastian Stan, Wes Bentley

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SYNOPSIS:  When her sister suddenly disappears, Jill believes that the same man who abducted her and she escaped from has returned to finish the job. When the local police think that Jill is delusional, she takes matters into her own hands.

REVIEW: Adrift director Heitor Dhalia takes a stab at the suspense game with a script from Underworld: Awakening and Untraceable screenwriter Allison Burnett. Recently working with a team of fellow writers. Burnett goes out on his own with this dramatic thriller.

In Portland, Oregon, young Jill (Amanda Seyfried, In Time) goes about her seemingly normal life with her midnight shift work as a waitress, living with her sister, classes in self-defense, and gridded searches on forest hikes. When her sister Molly (Emily Wickersham, I Am Number Four) disappears on the eve of a big exam, Jill is convinced that she has been abducted. Having escaped from a pit in the forest when abducted by a serial killer two years ago, Jill believes that Molly has been taken by the same man. Going to the police, Jill outlines to Detective Powers (Daniel Sunjata, One for the Money) what she knows and what she believes. From other detectives like Erica Lonsdale (Katherine Moennig, The Lincoln Lawyer) to Lt. Ray Bozeman (Michael Pare, The Lincoln Lawyer), no one takes Jill seriously enough to start scouring the city for her sister. Only newly returned detective Peter Hood (Wes Bentley, Jonah Hex) shows any belief that Jill may be right. Jill goes on a mission to find her sister, gun in her handbag, checking all leads in spite of the idle police department. Every step puts her closer to finding her sister and the serial killer who has haunted her for two years.

Allison Burnett's script and Heitor Dhalia's direction bring to the screen a modern-day noir-styled thriller. Seyfried's Jill is the tortured young woman searching for answers. The film is filled with characters that all could very well be the killer that Jill has been looking for. Is it the diner patron regular who is suddenly moving away because he 'doesn't like the woman in Portland'? Or is it Molly's boyfriend Billy (Sebastian Stan, Captain America: The First Avenger) who doesn't seem worried enough? Or is it the new cop Hood who seems too interested in Jill's case? The script tosses out classic red herrings seemingly by the dozens, trying to keep the audience guessing and in suspense. Most end up being obvious and more of a distraction than useful. Dhalia shoots many of the cast of characters with sharp camera angles and intense shadows to up-play just how sinister everyone in Portland seems to be.

With so many characters onscreen like co-worker Sharon (Jennifer Carpenter, Quarantine), the twitchy boyfriend of Molly's, and a bunch of cops that quickly dismiss Jill's claims for her missing sister because no real proof was discovered during her own abduction, the story flounders with the crowded cast excess with not much to do other than provide distraction for the plot - like a shiny quarter or a length of dangling yarn.

Though stuck in a story that should have by-passed the silver screen, Amanda Seyfried has enough talent and screen presence to carry Gone as far as she could. With wide-eyed terror and grim determination, Seyfried's Jill kept me interested throughout. It was only when Jill dialogues with the other characters that the story grinds down considerably. When Seyfried is on the hunt for her sister and the serial killer is when the pace and suspense keep to a fine clip.

Gone is an adequate suspenseful thriller, centering around a young, tortured, haunted girl who seeks vengeance against a serial killer, both for the abduction of her sister Molly and her own kidnapping that would have resulted in her own murder if she had not had the chance at escape. It is too bad that the attempt at misdirection with a motley cast of characters does nothing to enhance the story. Buy a ticket for this film if you must, but do so soon because its run in the theater will soon be gone.

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WORTH: Rental

Captain America: The First Avenger (3D)

Greatest American Hero

Director: Joe Johnston
Writers: Christopher Markus, Stephen McFeely, Joe Simon, Jack Kirby
Cast: Chris Evans, Hayley Atwell, Sebastian Stan, Tommy Lee Jones, Hugo Weaving, Samuel L. Jackson, Stanley Tucci

SYNOPSIS: After being rejected from the armed forces, 90 lb. weakling Steve Rogers volunteers for a top secret government project to create an army of super soldiers against the Nazi aggressors during World War II.

REVIEW: Joe Johnston, the director of The Rocketeer and, most recently, The Wolfman (2010) takes a script from Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, the screenplay writing team of The Chronicles of Narnia film series, and brings to life the origin tale of Captain America, the heart and honor of the Marvel Universe. Captain America: The First Avenger looks to shake off horrible television movies of the late 1970s with Reb Brown in the title role or an all-but-forgotten 1990 foreign made, direct-to-USA-video version that only the most die-hard fans would remember.

Chris Evans, the big-screen Johnny Storm of the Marvel Universe in the two most recent Fantastic Four films, faced questions as to whether he could wield the Star-Spangled shield. Would the movie-going public believe that Evans would be accepted for both the "Flame On!" hothead of Marvel's first family, and as the United States Government's first successful Super Soldier (some comics may debate the title of Steve Rogers being actually the first, but I digress)?

Comic book fans will have to make a decision. They will have to decide if they are willing to accept the revised origins of the Star Spangled Avenger. Sure, puny 90 lb Steve Rogers is still rejected from serving his country in World War II, but given an opportunity to volunteer for the top secret Super Soldier program. But the modern day return of the hero is marked by a Marvel Ultimates treatment. Is it sacrilege or smarter writing?

Joe Johnston, director knows his way around the graphically created Summer superhero fare, high stakes action flicks, and period pieces. With The Rocketeer, he handled all three. Now with Captain America: The First Avenger, he returns to the genre from where he received so much acclaim so many years ago.

Driven by the character as much as the action, Chris Evans’ Captain America, in my opinion, does the industry, the fans, and Summer movie-going proud. The women will love the fact that he shows more muscle and more skin than Ryan Reynolds did in this year’s earlier release, Green Lantern. With the bulk, blue eyes, and the Red, White and Blue, Evans brings a solemn responsibility and dedication to fighting for his country’s ideals, as well as his ideals. The effect of Steve Rogers as the pre-Super Soldier and his post-serum physiques really make the film!

And with any great superhero film, or any hero film for that matter, the villain is just as important as the hero. Hugo Weaving as Johann Schmidt, the ambitious scientist heading up Hitler’s Deep Science Division with his own aspirations for ultimate power and world domination, is picture perfect in tone and look. The make-up effects for this specific evil-doer is probably the best I have ever seen.

Also in the cast is the beautiful tough-as-nails British agent and sparking love interest Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell), Childhood friend James ‘Bucky’ Barnes (Sebastian Stan), gritty Colonel Chester Phillips (Tommy Lee Jones), United States weapons contractor Howard Stark (Dominic Cooper), Samuel L. Jackson (Nick Fury), Hydra weapons designer Dr. Arnim Zola (Toby Jones), and the Howling Commandos with derby wearing ‘Dum Dum’ Dugan (Neal McDonough), Gabe Jones (Derek Luke), Jim Morita (Kenneth Choi), James Montgomery Falsworth (JJ Field) and Jacques Dernier (Bruno Ricci).

Johnston and writers Markus and McFeely weave an excellent origin tale, spanning Steve Rogers humble beginnings to his rebirth in the 21st Century. Comic fans will enjoy the Easter Eggs at the 1942 Worlds Fair and Exhibition – Toro!, Toro!, the use of Captain Rogers as a propaganda patriot in the period equivalent of the classic Captain America costume to drum up the buying of war bonds, and Rogers unwavering attitude to protect his friends, soldiers and country from the outstretched clutches of the Axis. The action is slick, hard and fast. The look is as classic as any ‘Rosey the Riveter’ or ‘Uncle Sam - I Want You’ poster.

Fans and newcomers should find Captain America: The First Avenger as good as Favreau’s original Iron Man, and better than Thor (sorry, Thunder God). Funny, fresh and faithful to several comic treatments, Steve Rogers fights for truth, justice and the American way of life, throwing his mighty shield, and proving that a hero can have a heart and honor.

Even though Jon Favreau added the Easter Egg scene after Iron Man's credits as a lark, the end credit closing scene has become a part of the Marvel Universe on film. Stay in your seats to see a closing scene with Steve Rogers, as well as a trailer for next Summer’s The Avengers.

WORTH: Friday Night Opening and BluRay