THE APPARITION, PG-13 ( 1 hr & 22 min )

-

where:  UA EMERY BAY STADIUM 10 in Emeryville, CA
when:  Saturday, August 25th, 2012
show:  7:40 p.m.
costs:  $11.50 Ticket + $4.75 small 32.0 oz Diet Coke + $5.00 Carquinez Bridge Toll = 21.25
auditorium:  7
seat:  5th row, 9th column

synopsis/overview:  Scientists re-enact an early '70s seance in a scientific experiment in the Occult gone awry. As they unwittingly unleash a malevolent other-worldly entity, they must find a way to undo what they had done or suffer the horrible consequence of their unwise decision.

noteworthy scenes: 1.) The Charles Reamer Experiment; 2.) The scientific seance; 3.) Cactus; 4.) "'You burn something"; 5.) Doors; 6.) Dresser drawers; 7.) Dog; 8.) Linoleum floor; 9.) Crawl space; 10.) E-mails; 11.) Psychomateum; 12.) Soap; 13.) Closet; 14.) "At least, you finally got me camping; 15.) Cameras; 16.) Corner ceiling; 17.) Broken fetish figure; 18.) Footlocker;  19.)"We have the same builder"; 20.) "Your house killed my dog"; 21.) Tools of the trade; 22.) Video; 23.) "In my own way, I was trying to protect you"; 24.) Thermal scan; 25.) "We're safe now"; 26.) Attack; 27.) "Your house is not haunted. You are"; 28.) Defensive parameters; 29.) Laundry room; 30.) Linking process complete; 31.) Safe-room; 32.) Payback; 33.) "It is something you can quantify and qualify"; 34.) Wall; 35.) "Testing us"; and 36.) Tent.

audience reaction:  The audience didn't like the ending. I could hear three or four people utter their disappointment.

recommendation:  I didn't like this movie. This is strictly a DVD rental waiting to come out.

spoiler alert!  The scientific seance had too many audiovisual distractions for it to have worked! You would think that the police and other concerned parties would have conducted a Missing Person investigation. Every person connected to the experiment died a violent/horrible death. Yet, the dog looked like it just sat, laid down, and played dead. If I were that entity, I would have kicked that dog, grabbed it by its tail, twirled it a few times and slammed it around! Here's yet another movie wherein a shower curtain doesn't have a curtain liner--enough with the tease, already, show us some skin! An entity which can throw things around and lift heavy objects can only drag a security camera on the ground ...? Where did his company car come from since it wasn't there in earlier scenes and he had to get rides from his girlfriend? She was scared of being in that house yet she told her boyfriend to get out As She Stayed Indoors To Gather Her Wits About Her. Duh .... Okay, let me get this straight ... it pulls its victims through a portal and to a nearby Costco and then lures them into the abandoned store where it finishes them off ...? Her parents are gonna get charged with an exorbitantly expensive electric bill--so, she had better not show up again or they're gonna kill her! Ha, ha, ha.

fyi:  I read of a female research scientist who spent may years focusing her mental concentration on the will to create an entity, as an experiment. After about ten years, a small entity finally manifested before her. It was a benign being at the start. But as time went by, it gradually absorbed the negative energies all around it and became increasingly malevolent! She was able to make it disappear. I don't know exactly how she did it, though.

Electrical power lines supposedly generate an electro-magnetic field strong enough to make ghosts and spirits, which happen to be nearby, visually manifest. But I don't know if such a field can make them physically manifest.

A Fetish Figure is an object which supposedly has magical/supernatural properties. The reverential treatment of such is what leads to Idolatry. A broken Fetish Figure would no longer have its magical/supernatural properties intact. It's best disposed of by burning it in an open fire.

I'm staying away from Costco because it's either occupied by aliens from outer space ( THE WATCH, last month ) or it's haunted by evil spirits ( this movie, this month ). Ha, ha, ha.

word of advice:  Don't dabble in the Occult if you have no idea what you're getting yourself into.

tidbits:  I had to be at work by 5:00 a.m. today because somebody in another department had an injury and couldn't be at work. I filled-in in that department for two hours before I could start work in my own department.

After work, I decided to go to Oakland, CA, to ask Isma, Hector's son, about my computer. I wanted to know if the virus was copied by my External Drive because my computer acted-up last night. I had to unplug my External Drive and Reboot my computer. And it worked fine after that. But Isma said that it shouldn't have been copied by my External Drive and that my computer should be fine.

I'm gonna have to get me another computer, a.s.a.p., just in case.

Hector, who truly misses his kitten, Tiger, which went missing a few months ago, is about to get a new kitten from one of his nephews. The kitten is not fully weaned, yet. So, they're just waiting on that. They already got a name for it, though. They named it, Sylvester. Because it's all black with a white face, kinda like its cartoon cat namesake.

Sylvester, the cat

I had some leftover mixed nuts from my lunch break which I smuggled-in to munch on as I watched this movie.

During the Ending Credits, some idiot in the back row was doing Shadow Puppets on the screen!

After the movie, I went to the Wal-Mart ( the only department store open in the area ) at the Hilltop Mall in Richmond, CA, to check-out their wristwatches. I wanted to get a nice-looking one to compliment my dress shoes. But, after looking at all of their selections and styles, I just decided to use one of my watches, the one which I haven't used since I got it brand-new!

About seven years ago--God! has it been that long--my co-workers and I got quartz Fossil Wristwatches as a Safe Workplace Award. Yeah, we got lucky that year--we had not been safe before nor had we ever been safe since that year! Ha, ha, ha.

Anyway ....

The reason why I never used this particular watch was because the one that I was given had its Sweep Second Hand detached from its post. It came off for whatever reason. And I didn't want to bother taking it to a Watch Repair Shop since I have lots of watches, anyway. So, I just kept it in its "Collector Tin" case all of this time as a "souvenir".

But I finally decided to use my Fossil Watch, instead of shelling-out good money to buy another watch. First, I would have to take it to a repair shop on Monday to have its Sweep Second Hand reposted and to have a new battery installed.

Fossil 100 Metre Blue Quartz Wristwatch

The above is the exact kind of quartz watch that I was given as a Safety Award. According to the Internet, it supposedly retails for up to $115.oo! It's a nice watch. But I can't believe that it would retail for more than what a fully-automatic fake Rolex Daytona would cost!!!

I have a fake automatic Rolex Daytona ( a gift from my brother ) and a genuine automatic Seiko Bell-Matic ( a classic; and my very first watch, a gift from my father ) and a genuine automatic Invicta Pro Diver ( a gift from my eldest sister ). Yeah, I'm still waiting for an automatic watch gift from my other sister. LOL. But I don't like wearing any of these automatic watches because they're too nice-looking and too fancy for use in everyday situations. I just wear them for fancy get-togethers---No! I don't wear all three of them at once. Ha, ha, ha. You silly guy, you ....

And speaking of nice watches, I have an atomic watch and a pocket watch, too.

Also, I have about three dozen cheap quartz watches--my "bang-around" ones, I like to call them--for everyday use. Yes, the batteries are dead on most of them! But I don't want to be bothered with changing the batteries. I'll just keep them until I decide to either give them away or donate them.

Now, where was I ....  Oh, yeah!

When I got home, I fetched my Fossil Watch to open its case and find out what kind of battery it needed, before I take it to the repair shop on Monday. When I looked at the crystal, though, I was in for a pleasant but mysterious surprise: The Sweep Second Hand was securely back on its post! I couldn't believe it. I slapped my watch against the palm of my left hand a few times to see if I could dislodge the Sweep Second Hand from its post. But it wouldn't come off; it was securely in its place!!! Whatever did it just saved me some money--and I thanked it, of course. I went to compare this watch with my automatic Invicta Pro Diver. But because of how the Sweep Second Hand was miraculously/supernaturally reattached to its post, I decided on my Fossil Watch as The One to use with my dress shoes.

I cannot help but wonder, though, whether or not this same unknown force which took care of my watch also took care of the persons who vandalized and totaled my Geo Metro back in January of this year.

*