Director: Ben Jagger
Year: 2022
Country: USA
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Supernatural
Plot:
Moving into a new apartment together, a pair of friends living together is soon caught up in a wave of mysterious deaths in the building which forces them to look into the grisly history of the apartment where they uncover a connection involving a murderous spirit that's now targeted them.
Review:
This was a decent enough if overly formulaic genre effort. What works well here is the general sense of atmosphere and chills that emerge from the apartment. Since the atmosphere is driven by the lack of proper lighting throughout here with the building being renovated, the look of the apartment and the layout here makes the early scenes of shadows in the hallway or loud knocks that no one's around to perform offer some chilling moments. Once it grows in intensity to start including deaths and mysterious disappearances of those around them, the full reveal of everything with the backstory investigating the strange lore about the figure in the apartment. When this leads to the full revelation of the incidents surrounding the apartment haunting and how it all ties together, this one becomes a bit more fun with some brutal kills and hard-hitting chases that take place here which are all enough to make for an enjoyable enough effort.
There are some big flaws with the film though. The main issue here is the generally overlong and unnecessary running time that goes on way too long for its own good. The exploits of this come off in several areas as the film is either dug down in an unappealing tempo for what it's trying to do or features elements that aren't that important. There's a lot to like with the romance that blossoms between her and the guy at school but it's just so dully composed that it sucks the life out of the film in much the same way the constant reminders of their past traumas work but slow the film down considerably. Several scare scenes as well follow this tactic of just going on far longer than necessary which includes meandering sequences looking for her after wandering off or the aftermath which enhances the running time. Other stuff, including the traumatic childhood background that keeps getting brought up involving how they're being affected by the tragedy which begins affecting both of them differently, is hammered home to the point that it's not that interesting to witness going through once more.
Another factor here is a highly unoriginal and overly familiar setup that turns this one into yet another in a long line of ghost movies that are driven by a specific curse. The initial incidents and accidents that take place at the apartment are more than enough to alert anyone that something's not right about the place, from the mysterious stained-glass painting to the discovery of the strange necklace in the wall and the visions about the figures coming out of the wall as well as the sleepwalking that she's unaware of. These all lead to the investigation of the mysterious figure haunting the apartment building but are so obviously drawn from the same mold as numerous other genre efforts that it's hard to get the same impact from them especially when it signals the incredibly obvious and completely expected series of reveals that aren't in the slightest bit shocking. Overall, these factors end up lowering this one overall.
Overview: ***/5
Better than expected although still heavily flawed, this one comes off nicely enough for what it is although it’s still somewhat hampered by being so cliched and formulaic as there’s not much that’s original in this one. Give this a look if you’re into these kinds of indie supernatural genre efforts or don’t mind the negatives while those who are turned off by those factors or just not interested in this style should heed some caution with this one.
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