Mischa Barton and Rebecca De Mornay star in this remake of one of the worst films I’ve ever seen in my life and whilst it’s a marked improvement over the original, it’s ultimately a slow moving, dull affair.
Sick of looking after her boozy has been lush of a mother, Maddie (De Mornay), Janet (Michelle) decides to move out of the family home and into an apartment of her own. With a good job and a hot new boyfriend, things seem to be on the up. That is until she discovers the horrific story of the previous tenants and when she dies in an apparent suicide, her sister Lara (Barton) decides to stay in the apartment to find out what really happened to her.
This film has some awesome artwork and a good cast but that’s really about all it has going for it. The pacing is terrible with Julianne Michelle spending the first 40 minutes mainly wandering around talking to herself and overreacting. Some of the visual effects sequences (and there are many) are well executed whilst others (Janet plunging to her death being one) are shockingly bad.
Barton, De Mornay and Corey Sevier do well with the material, but the script feels underdeveloped resulting in a very rushed climax and a rubbish ending where absolutely nothing is resolved! Who is the antagonist? What drove her to commit murder? Why does she have it in for everyone who enters Apartment 1303? I wanted to know but no-one wanted to tell me!
OVERALL SUMMARY
Sadly, the film has not been released in a 3D format here in the UK so I can’t tell you if it adds anything to the proceedings (but my guess would be no). I’ve seen much worse but I feel that remaking something that was poorly structured in the first place was a bad idea. If there’s nothing else on it’s worth a rental but I wouldn’t rush to the cinema to see it.
