The Apparition
“They thought they created it. Now believing in it may be keeping it alive.”
Director
Todd Lincoln
Release
24 August 2012
Runtime
82 Minutes
Certificate
15
Synopsis
Before starting his life with Kelly, Ben took part in a university experiment with a group of researchers, including Patrick. The experiment was designed around an extraordinary theory. If enough people concentrated on the existence of a supernatural entity, could their belief somehow make that entity real? Something went terribly wrong. Years later, Kelly knows little about Ben's involvement in the experiment when the couple begin experiencing inexplicable disturbances inside their home. At first, the incidents are easy to dismiss. Then they become impossible to ignore. Objects move. The house changes. An unseen presence begins invading spaces that should be safe. Kelly gradually discovers that Ben hasn't told her everything about his past. Desperate for answers, they turn to Patrick, who understands more about the original experiment and what it may have unleashed. But their biggest problem isn't simply discovering how to destroy the entity. If the apparition exists because people believe in it, then every moment of fear may be giving it exactly what it needs.
The Movie Trailer
The Apparition is a supernatural horror film starring Ashley Greene, Sebastian Stan and Tom Felton, built around a frightening idea: what if believing in something could actually bring it into existence?
Kelly and Ben are a young couple settling into a new home when increasingly disturbing events begin happening around them.
Doors open by themselves. Strange marks appear. The house seems to be changing.
But the disturbances aren't connected to the building.
They're connected to Ben.
Years earlier, he took part in an experiment to prove that supernatural phenomena could be created through the power of human belief.
Something happened during that experiment.
Now, whatever they contacted seems to have followed him home.
THE EXPERIMENT
What Happens When Belief Makes the Impossible Real?
The experiment at the centre of The Apparition begins with an idea, not a traditional supernatural encounter.
Instead of trying to contact a ghost that already exists, the researchers attempt to determine whether collective belief can create something paranormal.
That distinction makes what follows considerably more disturbing.
If the experiment succeeded, Ben and the others didn't discover the entity.
They helped create it.
And once something has been given existence, nobody involved knows how to make it disappear again.
SOMETHING FOLLOWED HIM HOME
Kelly Discovers Ben's Past Isn't Finished With Him
Kelly initially has no reason to connect the disturbing events inside her home with Ben.
As the supernatural activity escalates, however, it becomes clear that their house isn't the real source of the problem.
Ben knows more than he's admitting.
His involvement in the earlier experiment means the couple aren't dealing with a random haunting. Something from Ben's past has returned, and Kelly has unknowingly been pulled into it.
The revelation changes the nature of their situation.
Leaving the house may not be enough.
Because the entity isn't attached to the property.
It's attached to them.
FEEDING ON FEAR
The More They Believe, the Stronger It Becomes
Most supernatural horror stories give their characters something tangible to fight.
The Apparition makes the rules considerably less reassuring.
If belief helped create the entity, then fear itself becomes dangerous.
Every unexplained noise encourages Kelly and Ben to believe something is there.
Every supernatural encounter strengthens that belief.
And every attempt to understand the apparition potentially reinforces the very thing they're trying to escape.
It creates a vicious circle.
To survive, Kelly and Ben need to stop something whose existence becomes harder to doubt every time it attacks them.