Emergo

source: Apartment 143

If your idea of a good time is watching people sitting at a table talking, with the sound so bad it sounds like it was filtered though a garbage can, and the talk is nonsensical and pretentious at the same time, then this one is for you. We found if you turn the sound off, it's boring beyond belief. If you leave the sound on, it's also boring beyond belief. Fast-forward it, it's boring. Leave the room altogether, it's still boring. Okay seriously, if you died and found that in the afterlife you had control over physical phenomena and could make lights flicker and loud noises happen, could you even be bothered with such things? Well, actually, yes you could, if you were an asshole. In fact, that's the message of this movie: asshole in this life, asshole in the next. For you, the hereafter is an eternal state of excruciating insanity, to quote a famous writer. Good! But if you're gonna make a movie about it, at least try and have a few good scenes, nice special effects, something. Don't, I beg you, for the zillionth time think you can get away with depicting a ghost as an attractive but obviously demented young woman (you know she's crazy because her hair is a mess) who crawls toward you across the floor. Or the ceiling, in this case.

Here's The Lowedown on "Apartment 143" (A Horror/Fount Footage DVD review)...LIKED IT!! Become a fan of The Lowedown on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/The-Lowedown/386583633764 Genre: 7.5 Movie: 5.5 What's it about? A parapsychologist team are asked to investigate Apartment 143. The White family, who have lost their wife/mother in a car crash, have been experiencing strange things since they moved in to the apartment. But, they were also experiencing things at their old place. What did I think? Found Footage movies are an acquired taste...and I for one have a taste for them. If you are a fan like I am, this movie is better than most. If it is not your style, however, You probably won't like it. The cast is recognizable and the acting was good...plus there are no misconceptions about it being real. Give it a shot...see what you think.

I think it started out pretty good and even some of the special effects were better than most movies we've seen. So why a 3 out of 10? There is no explanation for the phenomenon the family is experiencing. When the doctor can't find a ghost he concludes schizophrenia?! That's just stupid. They all saw pictures of a figure, heard unexplained noises including the kitchen being taken apart, and pictures turned upside down with no footprints anywhere. They have footage of a tea pot just magically moving from the stove to counter and doctor's conclusion is mental illness?! How?! How does that explain the daughter levitating, the wind, people being picked up and thrown across the room by an invisible force and the glass being blown from the doors?! It was just stupid and I'm so sorry but there was no other way to describe it. And what a let down because I had high expectations for this film. I was so amped up and set for a good horror story and this is the best they can come up with. So happy I saw this movie free on Netflix and had I known I wouldn't have wasted my time.

This movie was one of the worst I've ever seen! I think the paranormal genre is only getting a few good ones every 5 years or so. This film though, it was a complete insult to the entire genre, screenwriters, actors, everyone involved in the business! I have never given a rating of 1 star before, but this is much deserving in that account. I know some of the actors in this movie, they could have done a lot better, as far as a script. The actors in this film were good with what they were given, they were great. But, when you only have so much to work with, normally, it can't be made better, no matter how good your acting skills are! Also, the paranormal genre has been beat to death. They should lay off until they have something good to work with. I love paranormal and thriller/horror movies, even the older cult classics. But, please, lay off before doing anymore until you have a good script and not just good actors.

There are lights in every corner of the house, and the electricity is on, but the film is so amateur that only camera light is used just to "scare" people. I don't understand people using only camera light and get scared instead of simply turning the lights on. It's even pitch dark near the door- while the outside corridor is brightly illuminated. The owner of the house doesn't need to turn the lights on when opening the door. Another vampire movie scenario would be more appropriate. Amateur, amateur movie. A four-year old kid is hanging around and not even scared when things go real crazy- another big fail. There's no rational and sensational explanation of a four-year old kid walking in the house without even screaming and taking everything so natural. Why does not the family move away ? This is another question the scenario-maker needs to answer. Yes the "haunting" is about the family not the place, but at least the family needs to try communicating to the soul and solve the problem, instead of hiring a crew to put cameras and take pictures of the house. A lack of rational scenario.

I've watched most found footage films out there, and if I'm honest I went into this blinkered and expecting the worse, given most suffer from the usual poor storyline, poor acting or poor directing. Emergo however, caught me by surprise and I found myself sucked in straight from the outset and immediately realised that this found footage movie, IS something special. It's a shame that talented directors and writers will get tarnished by the poor efforts that dominate this genre, but quality always rises, and I'm glad that Torrens stuck to his guns and made this the way he did - without going into spoilers - his direction and filming style is what made this film what it is, believable. Well, to a point. Taking aside the more obvious parts of it to one side, the rest of the movie sits together into an brilliant first person camera, and if you don't jump at the various suspenseful parts... Torrens varies different techniques, from hand held to locked off cameras - the quality of each camera technique brilliantly pulled off - they all sit well together and add to the dark and overpowering feeling of the storyline. Character development in this genre is the biggest bugbear of mine - it's either crammed into a poor introduction leaving you to fight with them for the remainder of the film, or, the development doesn't exist - with Emergo however, whilst the development is done throughout the film, it's done in such a way that it mimics how you would do it in real life - it's not rushed, it's REAL. Maybe that's the key here. Taking aside the more out of the ordinary aspects, the movie actually plays out as it would have done were it a real life situation and a family is being terrorised by something unseen. Scientists, investigators and doctors coming together to meet a family at the end of their tether, the haunted looks of each family member a testament to what is happening in their home. Torrens pulls this all off brilliantly, and whilst the ending is maybe a little bit twee, I'm sure we've not seen the last of Emergo, and I sincerely hope Torrens goes on from strength to strength. My advice is to not miss this movie - it's one of the best Found Footage movies out there. 8/10

This film offers nothing new and is just a re-hash of pretty much everything we have seen from the found-footage genre. It even has the same flaws that many of those films have. The plot was predictable and the twist was not shocking at all. Every scare was dull and was either a lame predictable jump scare or had been ripped of from another movie. And just like Paranormal Activity, it had way too much of nothing going on. The last 30 minutes of the film are just ridiculous and laughable. And to top it off, like almost every found footage, the ending is horrible and one of the laziest i've seen from a found footage movie. There's really nothing to recommend about this movie and it's probably one of the worst found footage movies i've seen since Apollo 18. As much as it pains me to say it, it actually makes Paranormal Activity look good.

Apartment 143 gives us a look at a supposedly haunted apartment. The difference here is that the scientific investigators are looking for scientific explanations rather than the supernatural. It's a neat idea, but leads to some heavy exposition scenes that betray the found-footage set-up. Perhaps if these had been explained in talking head interviews it wouldn't seem so clunky and forced. The film does well to have a little mystery behind it and the cast are generally rather impressive. One of the biggest problems is how quick it wants to start. I don't find that these films work without a decent amount of build up. Here, the camera crew walk in and stuff is happening almost immediately. I also got tired at the scientists continued explanations of stuff when it was clear that some of these things were impossible to explain. Some decent effects and genuine scary parts make this a fine effort, but with a bit more time and some better pacing this could have been so much better.

This film makes 'The Blair Witch Project,' look as artistic as Citizen Kane. Enough said. Except I am compelled to write since I believe there is a minimum text requirement. Okay, let me also state this- Even by horror standards, which are 98% of the time, lower than the low, this film kicks it down a notch. Acting was hilarious, plot was ludicrous, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. I feel totally ripped off and 90 minutes of my life wasted. I am going to start a movement, to warn people away from this tripe, whoops, I mean film. Normally I am very verbose on the rare occasions when I feel compelled to rip a film to shreds. In this case, there is absolutely nothing to say. I would recommend students of film and real cinema, actually watch this sad attempt, to experience an example of "cinema gone wrong." Every painful second is something to be learned from, and never repeated.