I think that it's hard to overestimate the influence the Paranormal Activity series has had on horror films, especially the indies. It was such a huge hit, and made on such a tiny budget, that it's been copied time and time and time again. I think Apartment 143 is legally safe from any sort of lawsuit, but man - it really takes a lot of its queues from the PA series. The scares may be a little bit different, but a lot of the DNA is there. Honestly, you could change a little bit about the backstory and I'd say this would be a pretty serviceable spinoff - it's certainly better than part 4, anyways.
Apartment 143 is basically Paranormal Activity with professional paranormal investigators thrown in the mix. The investigators have an impressive array of equipment (way better than the guys on Ghost Adventures, anyways) - cameras mounted in all of the rooms, crazy infrared devices, geiger counter looking things, multiple computers - these folks are very well funded. They've even got something so fancy that they had to have it pixelated in the final cut! I guess the idea is that it is proprietary technology - so fancy and innovative that they don't want anyone stealing their ideas. Although I like to think it was just a cardboard box in real life. The majority of the action is edited together from the static cameras placed throughout the house, although some footage comes from the handheld cameras the crew carries around.
The crew is investigating the titular apartment - there is a family of three living there (father, his 15-16 year old daughter, and a young boy) - the mother recently passed away. The family is not exactly forthcoming with how this happened. They used to live outside of town, but after mom's death strange things started happening in their house - the lights would flicker on and off, they'd hear strange noises, and eventually the daughter started getting scratches on her body. Dad moved them to the city in hopes of getting away from whatever was at the house. All was well in apartment 143 for a couple of weeks, and then things started happening again. Our investigators have taken the case and are hoping to get to the bottom of it!
Since it's so close to Paranormal Activity, you can easily tell if you're going to like it or not. I'm a pretty big fan, so mostly enjoyed Apartment 143. It uses a lot of similar tactics - it builds tension by using long static shots of nothing happening. It's really simple, but also really effective - but I understand that it just doesn't work for some people. Apartment 143 is probably equal to PA in the tension building respect. But once the actual scares happen, 143 loses handily. There is no finesse to any of the haunting stuff that happens - it's all really big, really loud, and often times just kind of obnoxious. There's one scene where it all quiet quiet quiet and then a girl just screams her head off - it's more funny than scary. One thing PA does well is that it knows that sometimes quietness in the scare scenes can be more frightening than loudness - i.e. seeing someone/something slowly wander into the frame can be more frightening than a ghost suddenly appearing (with a loud musical sting) and charging at the camera. I don't think there is one subtle scare in all of Apartment 143.
There is a solid scene that is pretty much ripped off directly from Paranormal 3. They've got this rotating camera (like the one mounted on the oscillating fan) that pans back and forth - here though, it is taking pictures every second or so. So it's pitch black, and not only is the camera moving back and forth, it's a slow strobing effect too. It encapsulates what I love about many of these found-footage films - periods of safety, followed by periods of danger. (PA and Blair Witch did this with night vs. day - safe in the day, risk at night. The oscillating fan bit in PA3 did it with left and right - left = safe, right = risk. This part of Apartment 143 takes it to it's extreme - darkness is safe, flash is danger.) But once again, when you actually see something, it's not that scary. So the build is there, but the payoff isn't. I give a little more importance to the build up though, which is why I'd ultimately give Apartment 143 the thumbs up. Your mileage may vary.
They do add layers of family drama here - the daughter basically blames her dad for her mother's death, and is a big asshole to him. Does he deserve any of that blame? Is he just playing nice for the camera? It's really nothing outstanding, but it's a nice change of pace and gives the audience something to focus on when we aren't watching a still shot of the dining room for a full minute waiting for something to happen. The acting is all pretty good - all you can really ask for in something like this is that no one is distractingly bad. But special mention needs to go to the father played by Kai Lennox. He does the heavy lifting in the drama department - if he gave a shitty performance, the whole dramatic angle just wouldn't work. Luckily, he's able to play the emotionally wounded widower/angry father just right - you feel bad for him, but there's just enough of an edge there to make you wonder if something sinister is lurking beneath the surface.
Overall, it's an enjoyable flick. You can pretty much gauge what you'll think based on your enjoyment of the Paranormal movies. I'd say it's slightly better than part 2*. If you know that going in, you shouldn't have any surprises.
I would recommend this film.
*If you must know, my rankings would be:
1
3
Marked Ones
2
4
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