Review: APPARITION, An Angry Ride Leads To Ghostly, Everlasting Loss
Truthfully, I was never scared by anything that happens in Apparition, a film by Quinn Saunders that is now hitting home video. But I was unsettled, at times, and disquieted, occasionally, by the atmosphere of a big empty house and its lonely inhabitant, because it strikes close to home in its thematic treatment of loneliness and despair.
Doug (Jody Quigley) appears to be an affable, low-key sort of fellow, which doesn't quite square with his career as a successful Wall Street financial professional. Still, he has a lovely girlfriend named Lori (Katrina Law) and a lovely country home in upstate New York, so he must be doing something right. He and Lori get engaged, but they get into an ugly tiff after her old boyfriend shows up at the engagement party, and the angry ride home turns disastrous when an accident costs Lori her life.
The accident sends Doug into a steep emotional decline. Mired in depression, he remains at the house in the country, renovating it as Lori wished, unable to let go of his lost love. Such personal turmoil is entirely understandable, especially because Doug rejects the kindly assistance offered by an old friend.
Cutting himself off, in isolation, leaves Doug open to possible supernatural forces lurking in the house. But are they truly supernatural forces? Or, more simply, some kind of manifestation of his cracked pyche? To further complicate things for Doug, a woman who lives nearby, Jamie (Lili Bordan), takes an interest in him, leading to a relationship that is fraught with peril and problems, as Doug cycles through varying levels of stress and anxiety, nearing the point of shutting down entirely.
At its heart, Apparition is a quiet tale about Doug's struggle to deal with a terrible loss; it's less a horror movie and more of a haunted drama. It often succumbs, though, to horror-film stereotypes, employing loud music cues to try and create suspense, as well as 'shocking' jump cuts that are anything but. As the story develops, the film's point of view becomes obscured; the script by Pete Cafaro and Andrew Kayros, directed by Quinn Saunders (2010's Cherry), sends Doug down different paths that tend to undermine the building of suspense.
As it is, Apparition may be a lightweight in the horror department, yet its thoughtful depiction of the terrors of despair and depression will be uncomfortably familiar to those of us who have experienced the depths of the shadowy abyss that constantly threatens to envelope "ordinary" life.
In other words: recommended for a rental! But watch it with a friend, if you can.
The film, originally titled Remorse, is now available on various home video platforms, including Amazon and iTunes.
