Although I’ve never been a huge scary movie fan, I went to go see the new paranormal film, The Apparition, starring Twilight star Ashely Greene. It failed to inspire fear – or much of anything else.

In the film, Kelly and Ben, a young couple, move into a new home in Palmdale. Previously, Ben was involved in a disastrous college experiment attempting to bring a paranormal being into our world, which resulted in one of the participants disappearing and the paranormal creature being released to wreak havoc. Kelly and Ben soon discover bizarre things happening around them, such as plants mysteriously dying and locked doors being flung open. In their panic, Ben turns to Patrick, his friend who designed the paranormal experiments, for understanding and help.

Since I had never particularly enjoyed paranormal movies, I didn’t have high expectations for The Apparition, yet I was still disappointed. The movie started out well, but the quality of it quickly decayed. It was slow moving and sluggish with little excitement.

The film was very similar to other paranormal films, like the Paranormal Activity series, and lacked originality. It was very predictable and there were no real shocks or surprises. Despite The Apparition being a horror film, it was not very scary at all. Devoid of terror, the film only managed to be creepy. Sadly, the most frightening part of the entire movie didn’t involve the apparition at all.

The acting wasn’t very strong either.

I did enjoy seeing Greene as the main character, Kelly, although her acting performance was hardly superb. Sebastian Stan stumbled through the film as Kelly’s dutiful boyfriend, Ben, without much acting at all. Tom Felton, British Harry Potter star, had a small part as Patrick but failed to bring much to the struggling film.

The worst aspect of The Apparition was its horrendous storyline. The plot was terrible and lacked a proper climax and resolution. Most of the events in the film, as well as the characters’ actions, were completely nonsensical or pointless. The story had no reason behind it and the paranormal components were never explained. The ending, the worst part of the entire film, was extremely unsatisfactory and utterly absurd.

Overall, The Apparition was not a very well thought out or executed film. It had little direction or rationale. The story was atrocious and the conclusion was ridiculous. As a horror film, it failed to inspire fear and I would not recommend it.

Aran Kirschenmann, 16, is a contributing writer for the Bellevue Reporter and a Junior at Bellevue High School. You may reach and connect with her on her Facebook page “The Young Critic.”