APARTMENT 143 Review

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I watched this film four times and wrote four different reviews with four different ratings.  It’s quite unnerving for a self-proclaimed know-it-all to waiver so about his first impression.  I don’t know whether to produce a lengthy rant or a short shoulder shrug.  So, here goes nothing.

Because the past decade and more has produced numerous films dealing with investigations of paranormal activity – especially those involving some supposed documentarian footage – Apartment 143 provides little setup but instead launches headfirst into the appearance of a parapsychologist and his team.  The team arrives at the request of a widower living in a new apartment with his teenage daughter and young son.  After the White family’s seriously ill wife and mother dies in a car accident, the father moves himself and his children into the apartment.  Are they being haunted by the dead woman, and if so, why?

Almost immediately upon the team’s arrival, strange occurrences begin to happen.  The team installs video cameras, takes still pictures, sets up motion detectors, and creates a base camp.  Numerous paranormal detection devices are utilized so that each and any possible event will be captured.  The audience is treated to a kitchen-sink approach as anything and everything from the genre shows up here including objects being moved, mysterious sounds, ghost sightings, possession, poltergeist phenomenon, use of a psychic, and so on.  Different viewers will arrive at different conclusions, but I did not find the paranormal activities to be that shocking, disturbing, impressive, or even remotely scary.

Films dealing with supernatural events generally focus on either the living or the dead.  From the beginning, I wondered whether or not the young boy (Damian Roman) might be involved in the mysterious events.  Benny is a sweet four-year-old who matter-of-factly reveals that he has seen his dead mother.  I also kept my attention trained on the teenage daughter Caitlin (Gia Mantegna) who cannot stand her father and openly shows her contempt.  Perhaps her development into a young woman accounts for the mysterious goings-on.  The film additionally suggests the father (Kai Lennox) may be the cause and we are invited to question his relationship with his wife and their children.  In case someone does choose to watch this film, I will avoid revealing whether or which of the three ends up at the center of the paranormal events.

I desperately wish writer Rodrigo Cortes and director Carles Torrens had paid more attention to the family members’ relationships with one another.  These relationships represent the sole object of interest.  At one point, Mr. White speaks frankly and passionately about his wife and provides a rare unsettling moment in the film.  In another key incident, Caitlin is under the influence of an unknown force and fragmentally accuses her father of possible horrendous acts.  It was during these two instances that I suddenly woke up and became fleetingly interested.  Unfortunately, the filmmakers did not adequately or convincingly link the paranormal activities to the very real trauma that we know the family has been through or family secrets which are hinted at but never fully revealed.  Had these connections been made, it’s quite possible that the film would have been at least a solid base hit if not a home run.  At the film’s end, the parapsychologist provides an explanation of the events bordering on the obtuse and absurd.

If you like this genre, stick to superior films such as The Blair Witch Project and the first Paranormal Activity because Apartment 143 is more-or-less an exercise in futile frustration.  Or, watch this film and return to Film Pulse with your comments as to what you think about the low-budget effects, the paranormal activities’ relationship to the family’s secrets, and the explanation of why this family suffered so at the hands of a supernatural force.  I’d be delighted to hear others’ opinions since I struggled with my own thoughts with each successive viewing.