On February 7th, my wife and I went on a trip to sunny California. We started in LA, visiting a friend for a couple of days, and over the next week slowly drove up the coast to finish things up in San Francisco. It was rad! But, it made watching a movie every day/writing about it quite difficult. As committed as I am to this thing, I can't justify missing out on a potentially once-in-a-lifetime trip to blog about a terrible indie-slasher, you know? Plus, I think it's wise to occasionally do things with your spouse.
So things will be a little different for the next 11 entries. I managed to watch the movies, but rather than writing about them as I normally do, I'll do a quick little synopsis, a little imdb research, quote some of the reviews (can you do that?) and bounce off of them. Followed up with my general impressions. Okay, thanks!
California is pretty sweet.
The Appearing
A couple has moved to a small town to get away from the city after the tragic death of their daughter. The husband used to be a big city cop, and is now man number two in a two-man police force. His first job is a missing persons case where there just may be supernatural shenanigans involved. Maybe even the devil! And it turns out the devil has quite a history in this small town...
And there's some "spiritual warfare." A couple of the (obviously planted) reviews mention that specifically, so there's your marketable buzzwords to use for The Appearing.
Take all the actors out and replace them with ones who can act and use more than one or two facial expressions then possibly it could work... Worst film I have seen in ages.
-Thanks "alec-817-763002" via imdb
Wow, people really hated this movie. I wasn't blown away or anything (I actually didn't really like it), but it's not the worst thing I've ever seen. Lots of "worst movie ever" type comments on imdb. It wasn't even the worst movie I saw in the last 48 hours!
But people are really ragging on the acting. It's not great, but it's not *all* that bad. There are actually some notable names - Dean Cain (not that bad), Don Swayze (I liked him!), and Joe Estevez (always a treat to see him - although his character serves *no* purpose at all in the film - I'm not sure why he's even here). But while the acting is fine, I think the casting is pretty poor - like they got actors for the parts and didn't bother altering the script accordingly. The "high school kids" look old (even by horror movie standards), and the main guy's wife looks young enough to be his daughter.
It appears i went to sleep while watching it
-Thanks "tarakumari" via imdb
Okay, that's pretty damned funny.
The script possesses many stupidities
-Thanks "Ralphus2" via imdb
The Appearing is a pretty typical possession/exorcism movie, and it was *kind* of unique in some respects. Mostly it feels a little more grounded - there aren't a bunch of crazy effects or things flying around or anything like that. And I liked the way they used children's drawings/scribblings to sort of fill you in on the plot. Writer-Director Daric Gates tries to keep things serious too - there is very little (no?) humor to the proceedings and just about every main character is trying to recover from some horrific event in their past. But there are just a few too many conveniences/flaws in the script (as well as the baffling casting) for you to ever take things too seriously.
Also, it's clear from the name/art that it's trying to coast on the popularity of The Conjuring. Way to set yourself up for disappointment, you guys.
Final Thoughts:
Hard to recommend, but not as terrible as many of the imdb reviews would have you believe. Those are seriously harsh!
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