This horror movie from Warner Bros. is nothing special, but it's nice to see a modest genre entertainment buoyed by a major studio's resources.
- Ben Sachs, Chicago Reader, August 31, 2012
The entity is a ghostly presence amid an even ghostlier absence. This is truly distressed real estate.
- Mark Feeney, Boston Globe, August 29, 2012
Something lacking either body heat or visceral suspense.
- Mark Olsen, Los Angeles Times, August 28, 2012
For casual viewers desiring a few scares, some suspense and a sustained sense of dread and malevolence, you could do worse.
- Frank Lovece, Newsday, August 26, 2012
Lights flicker; soap and cactuses blacken; claw marks appear; icky molds gather like hornet nests.
- Andy Webster, New York Times, August 26, 2012
Might give you a restless night, but only because you fell asleep in the theater.
- Keith Staskiewicz, Entertainment Weekly, August 26, 2012
The Apparition is not a great or even good haunted-house movie, but it does have the advantage of a memorable setting.
- Nick Pinkerton, Village Voice, August 26, 2012
Mild scares and a go-nowhere climax haunt this suburbs-set debut.
- John DeFore, Hollywood Reporter, August 24, 2012
If you listen closely enough while things go bump in the night during The Apparition, you might also hear the scraping of barrel bottoms.
- Joe Leydon, Variety, August 24, 2012
The movie loses goodwill early on by killing an adorable dog, resulting in a lack of an identification point, since the canine has better intuition than the humans.
- Ben Kenigsberg, Time Out New York, August 24, 2012
The story is a worthy one, but the film lacks any daring expressive touches that might have made it, at the very least, noteworthy.
- Chris Cabin, Slant Magazine, August 24, 2012
It's a potentially creepy setting that would give an innovative director a chance to do a lot with a little. Unfortunately, Lincoln isn't one of those.
- Keith Phipps, AV Club, August 24, 2012
