There's something to be said about how bad a film is, when the first ten minutes pass and you're wondering more about how it got made than the plot itself.The acting is bizarre. It reminds me of drama classes in high school, where a prompt to "look happy" means smiling maniacally whilst staring at a single point in the distance like a crazy person. Or the instruction to be the "stoner chick" ends up like the only knowledge the actress has of drugs is a "Just Say No!" education commercial.An early scene sets the tone. A curious girl and some guy (...boyfriend? I honestly have no idea) wander into an abandoned, haunted house. The script has the girl stating at least 5 times how weird the place is, even though it actually doesn't resemble anything other than an old house with cobwebs. Seriously, it's not even dark in there. Then we're introduced to a couple who have moved to the area following a "tragic event". Fair enough, but when we see the wife in the bathroom looking upset, music suddenly roars into life, completely obliterating the mood. Is it background music? Is it a CD the wife put on? Where the hell did it come from? And WHY IS IT SO LOUD?! Still, I'm only fourteen minutes in. The next scene shows the wife making breakfast and the husband doing his best not to act in any kind of realistic way, by stating that he can't share breakfast as he's late for work, but then weirdly taking absolutely ages to drink a glass of OJ and take two bites of toast. Sad wife (I think, she's got that weird look in her eyes again - and not because of her acting) looks at a photo of her daughter (ah, so that's the tragic event) and then runs out of the house, and then just appears in the middle of a country road with photo in hand. But this isn't lost time, or a fugue state. She's just...walking there.I've got another hour and a quarter of this. Can't wait.

This movie was your typical horror movie but worse. Let's start off with the actors who were chosen for this movie. Are we to accept these people are actually high school students? Next, let's talk about the music. Music is important to a movie. At times, the music made the dialogue hard to hear. The scene at the hospital was just strange. If someone is out of it like that, they don't haul them off to the police. I know I am over- analyzing things but sheesh don't directors want people to buy into a movie? Why was the hospital so yellowish-green?The wife in the movie goes from having normal looking eyes to eyes that have dark circles and back again. Why would that be? As one progresses into possession, I thought you would deteriorate. Guess I have seen to many possessed people.

That's what I felt when watching this. I was basically watching every other lame ghost story there has ever been put to celluloid.A detective and his wife try and start a new life in a small town, (why is it always a small town?), to get over the tragic loss of their child.There's no time to settle in as the new detective becomes involved in a missing persons case. It all seems to be about a powerful demon that is running rampant through the town and also the fact that his wife used to be a victim of possession, however this just leaves her vulnerable to further possessions by one of the princes of hell known as Asmodeus. There are old houses, dead languages being spoken, words written in blood, spooky recordings and every other ghost movie cliché you can shake a stick at in The Appearing. If all this sounds somewhat exciting, it isn't. I found this to just plod along from one seemingly spooky bit to the other without much story in between. Even the finale of the detective, sheriff and the obligatory fallen, yet not completely fallen priest helping to exorcise the demon was boring. It was obvious to me that they just tried way too hard to make this a masterpiece of cinematography, which it isn't. It appears that seeing Dean Cain in a cast list is another reason to avoid a movie at all costs.As for other reviews on this title, I didn't find the movie racist in any way due to the lack of black women. For that matter there were no Asian or Hispanic women in the movie either from what I could see, but whether or not that makes a movie racist remains to be seen. The Appearing is just a boring, colour by numbers movie that didn't need to be made. Having a more multi-racial cast would not have made much of a difference to just how awful this movie is.

I could go on about the lame script, bad acting, blind camera work, lazy directing, and amateur editing, but this has been covered by the others commenting. The movie opens with a black man kissing a brunette, which is fine, except that not one black girl appears in the movie, and if there was, it would be an extra, completely ignored by all men except possibly a black man. Why? Because the movie industry is racist. I shove the crew's face in the pile of racism they made. BAD DIRECTOR! BAD PRODUCER! You are worse than scum, you are traitors. Matthew J. Ryan and Daric Gates are bigots: Do not hire, do not invite, do not return their calls.