Apartment 1303 (2007/Tartan/DTS)

 

Picture: C+     Sound: B-     Extras: C-     Film: C

 

 

As if we had not suffered enough bad cinema thanks to The Grudge, Apartment 1303 (2007) tells yet another tired story of another place haunted by death and possibly a person wrongly dead/killed.  This time, did the young lady kill herself or was she murdered?  Instead of lingering on this boring question, director Ataru Oikawa (who co-wrote the script) tries to give this some exposition to make it work.

 

Unfortunately, the situation is so played out, even the sincere attempt by the cast and crew cannot make this work, just lessen the clichés.  Too bad, because it is not a bad looking film and the locations are interesting, as made in Japan.  Otherwise, this is for the most diehard fans only.

 

The anamorphically enhanced 1.85 X 1 image is soft and color limits are an issue.  Some of the shots are not bad.  The DTS 5.1 and Dolby Digital 5.1 mixes have limits in soundfield and dialogue is sometimes more compressed than it should be.  In the most active scenes, the dialogue is not an issue and the sound is easily at its best.  Stills and the original trailer are the only extras.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo