When her sister apparently kills herself, Mariko refuses to believe that it was suicide and decides to investigate further. Her search for answers begins and ends at her sister's new apartment - number 1303 situated on the 13th floor of the building. It is here that Mariko discovers a dark history in which every female who moves into the apartment ends up throwing themselves from the balcony...
The problem with "Apartment 1303" is that it's all so painfully derivative.
The writer has obviously seen Shimizu's "The Grudge" movies and has attempted to pen his own version, but the resulting movie is nowhere near as good. Some of the scenes in "Apartment 1303" even fully replicate (or perhaps I should say 'steal from') "The Grudge" but are less effective in every way (for example, the scene in "The Grudge 2" where victims are attacked by the ghost's hair also appears here in much the same way). I'm actually amazed that the makers of "Apartment 1303" weren't sued when this film came out!
Quite early in the movie, a character is telling a ghost story about a demonic woman with no eyes. As she tells it, you see flashes of the monster and I found myself hoping that this would be the evil spirit plaguing the apartment. Alas, once the telling of the story concluded we did not see this monster anymore. The reason I'm mentioning this is because the monster we saw for two or so minutes in this scene was far more interesting than the real ghosts of the movie (and, it seems that the people who packaged the DVD realised it too, because the monster appears on the back cover)!
The tension of this movie is further decreased by the fact that every death follows the same pattern. The victim sees something horrible off-screen and then the next scene shows them falling off the balcony. At least with "The Grudge" you never quite knew how the next victim would perish.
All in all, this is a mediocre movie. If you've never seen an Asian horror movie then you might find it interesting but most people will watch it whilst thinking "Haven't I already seen this before somewhere?"
The problem with "Apartment 1303" is that it's all so painfully derivative.
The writer has obviously seen Shimizu's "The Grudge" movies and has attempted to pen his own version, but the resulting movie is nowhere near as good. Some of the scenes in "Apartment 1303" even fully replicate (or perhaps I should say 'steal from') "The Grudge" but are less effective in every way (for example, the scene in "The Grudge 2" where victims are attacked by the ghost's hair also appears here in much the same way). I'm actually amazed that the makers of "Apartment 1303" weren't sued when this film came out!
Quite early in the movie, a character is telling a ghost story about a demonic woman with no eyes. As she tells it, you see flashes of the monster and I found myself hoping that this would be the evil spirit plaguing the apartment. Alas, once the telling of the story concluded we did not see this monster anymore. The reason I'm mentioning this is because the monster we saw for two or so minutes in this scene was far more interesting than the real ghosts of the movie (and, it seems that the people who packaged the DVD realised it too, because the monster appears on the back cover)!
The tension of this movie is further decreased by the fact that every death follows the same pattern. The victim sees something horrible off-screen and then the next scene shows them falling off the balcony. At least with "The Grudge" you never quite knew how the next victim would perish.
All in all, this is a mediocre movie. If you've never seen an Asian horror movie then you might find it interesting but most people will watch it whilst thinking "Haven't I already seen this before somewhere?"