Bloodtype Online

    There always seems to be a lot of complaints regarding the use of long haired ghosts in Japanese and Asian horror flicks. The main problem it seems is that there are too many. The truth of the matter is though that there are plenty of alternative styles of horror coming out of the Far East, you just have to have a look about and you will find them. The truth of the matter is that I haven’t really watched any flicks of that style for quite some time now, so watching Apartment 1303, which yes does have a (very) long haired ghost came as a refreshing change for me. 

    In the opening scene a young girl plunges to her death from the balcony of the titular apartment’s balcony shortly investigating a sound coming a closet in one of the other rooms. One month later Sayaka moves into the same apartment, this being her first place of her own. Whilst celebrating her new found freedom with her friends she also makes the mistake of checking out the very same closet. Shortly after she walks zombie-like back to the party and, after some bizarre behavior, also takes a header off the balcony. 

    Whilst at the Sayaka’s wake her sister Mariko is confronted by the ghost of her sister, or is she just seeing things? Regardless, she decides to investigate what happened to her sister, being as she is not convinced that it was suicide as the police would have everyone believe. 

    Throw into the mix abusive relationships, a creepy little kid who seems to know far more than she lets on and some killer hair extensions and the scene is set for this spooky movie. 

    Apartment 1303, although not especially original, is a quite decent little movie; it starts of relatively slowly with a few ghostly happenings here and there before slowly turning the heat up with some genuinely creepy moments. In fact this movie is honestly the first one to make me physically jump in years, as embarrassing as it is to admit. Many of the jumps I could see coming, but for whatever reason this one did the trick! I won’t tell you which part of the movie though as I don’t want to spoil it. 

Jump scares aside it was actually the more subtle scares that impressed me; a ghostly image on a cell phone or behind a net curtain. These worked well throughout the movie, but alas the good work was slightly let down by an overly dramatic climax that, whilst initially worked nicely, went a little over the top. 

    There isn’t much in the way of blood and guts in Apartment 1303, this is more about the chills than anything else, but you do get bleeding eyes and a not-so-graphic stabbing if you like the red stuff.  

    Most of the performances were solid enough, although nothing out of the ordinary, the one stand-out being the young actress who played Mariko (sorry, I have no cast list). Initially playful and without a care in the world the toll the investigation takes on her is played quite nicely. 

    A little better pacing and an improved ending would have made this a better movie. Still, it managed to make me jump, and along with some scary scenes and quite disturbing imagery turned out to be quite an enjoyable movie. 

    On a final note this being the screener copy there were no extras included and the picture quality wasn’t that terrific. However, once Tartan finish with it I can only imagine that the picture will be much sharper, which will only add to the impact of the film. If past releases are anything to go by then I am sure this will be case. 

Rating - ***

- Jude Felton