It seems that every week there is someone in the worlds of entertainment or politics who is attempting to re-invent themselves. They want us to forgot about their past and their history and simply focus on what they are doing now. As honorable as a request that is, it can be very difficult. The same goes for movies like The Apparition. In a perfect world, we should only pay attention to the movie as it is and not think about the fact that it was shot in early 2010 and then shelved as a part of a contract dispute. Warner then released it to 810 screens this past August, where it didn't even crack the Top 10. The movie has now made its way to Blu-ray Disc where we can decide if we want to give it a clean slate.

The Apparition opens with a scene from 1973 where a group of scientists are attempting to contact the spirit of a recently departed colleague. We are told that this is known as "The Charles Experiment". The scene then jumps to what is presumably the present, as a group of college kids, lead by Patrick (Tom Felton) meet in what appears to be a boiler room to attempt re-create the experiment, but things go awry. The story then shifts to a desert town where we meet veterinarian-in-training Kelly (Ashley Greene) and her boyfriend, Ben (Sebastian Stan). They live together in a nice spec house in a sparsely occupied subdivision. One night, they find the front door open, despite the fact that the security system had been set. Then, they hear noises, as if someone is in the house. These odd occurrences continue and escalate into furniture moving and a mysterious mold growing on the floors and ceilings. Kelly wants to leave the house, but Ben assures her that he will get to the bottom of things. How is all of this linked to the experiments seen in the opening and will Kelly and Ben ever regain control of their house?

As noted above, The Apparition was supposedly delayed due to a split between Dark Castle and Warner Bros. In most cases when a movie is shot and doesn’t see the light of day for years, there is something wrong with the movie. In many of these situations, various editors have been brought in to try and salvage the movie and this often results in a film which is whittled away to nothing. For all intents and purposes, it looks like this could have happened with The Apparition, as the movie is 73-minutes long minus the 9 minutes of end credits. This barely qualifies as feature length.

This running time isn’t the only thing which points to a movie which has been hacked to pieces. The story really suffers here and the movie makes little sense at times. The manner in which the opening jumps through three different settings is not a great way to start a movie. Once we meet Kelly and Ben, we don’t really get to know them. The movie wants to keep some elements of their story a mystery, and that’s fine, but a lot of important details about who they are fall by the wayside. The middle part of the movie contains some fairly standard haunting stuff, but a scene involving a neighbor’s dog and the truly bizarre line from a little girl which follows it feel laughably out of place. The movie really goes off the rails in the third act and this is where it really feels like cuts were made. The ghostly attacks intensify, some veiled explanations are given, and then a very sudden ending occurs. I think that the finale is supposed to be bleak and disturbing, but it’s simultaneously mind-boggling and silly.

The Apparition can’t be bothered with explanations on Blu-ray Disc courtesy of Warner Home Video. The film has been letterboxed at 2.35:1 and the Disc contains an AVC 1080p HD transfer which runs at an average of 19 Mbps. The image is very sharp and clear, showing no overt grain and no defects from the source material. The desert landscape shots are a bit washed out (perhaps on purpose), but overall the colors are good and the image is never overly dark or bright. The depth is very good, as the actors are clearly separate from the backgrounds. The level of details is good as well, as we can make out textures on objects. The Disc carries a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track which runs at 48 kHz and an average of 4.0 Mbps. The track provides clear dialogue and sound effects. From the opening moment of the film, we get abundant surround and stereo effects which are nicely detailed and show fine separation. The surround effects often pinpoint a specific sound and show that care went into the mix. The subwoofer effects are also noteworthy, as they really come to life in the “shock” scenes.

The Apparition Blu-ray Disc contains four extra features, most of which have little to do with the movie. "The Apparition: A Cinematic Specter" (4 minutes) has Felton, Greene, and Stan commenting on the subject matter and attempting to better explain what the movie was about...and what Felton says doesn't sound like the movie I saw. There are also comments from Joshua P. Warren, the film's "ghost consultant". I guess that's good work if you can find it. The piece also offers some on-set footage. Warren returns in "The Dark Realm of (sic) Paranormal" (5 minutes) and we learn more about his work and his experiences in ghost investigations. He also gives his views on science, nature, and our existence. "Haunted Asheville" (8 minutes) has comments from historian Dan Rogers who talks about the history of the mountains of North Carolina. We also see that we can't rid ourselves of Warren, as he pops up here. Yes, her wrote a book called Haunted Asheville, but this has little to do with The Apparition, which takes placed in the desert. As someone who has been to Asheville, this is sort of interesting, but it will most likely befuddle most viewers. Warren proves that he simply isn't going away in "The Experiment of The Apparition" (9 minutes), as he shows us the science and the theories behind some of the scenes from the film.