The Appointment (1982) (2025)

Popular reviews

• Review by Justin LaLiberty ★★★★½ 4

  one of the most purely cinematic representations of a nightmare that I can think of -- held my breath for the last fifteen minutes, am now terrified of dogs, phones, box trucks and being awake

• Review by BeardofTsu ★★★

  This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

• Review by The Horror of Marna Larsen ★★★★★

  I'm trying to think of something eloquent but this refrain of: it was weird! I didn't like it! But I did like it! keeps ringing through my head, drowning out any other thoughts and I just can't think of anything else.

  There is a droning noise which begins and then never abates, never abates, never abates, not really

  Even during the brief moments it subsides, there's an echo of it - like the laughter and the echoing voice at the beginning never really subsides. Like sounds never really do.

  It was weird. I liked it but I didn't. I was unsettled. Maybe I don't like being really unsettled.

• Review by Scumbalina ★★★★★ 3

  🔠: A

  This movie is a mood spell. It can and will manipulate your emotions and physical state of comfort. I don't know how to talk about the opening scene, but for those who have seen this and have read my review for the Blair Witch Project, that's what I thought was going to happen to me and/or Meagan in the 6th grade at that slumber party. I wasn't expecting this to be an intense character study of a haunted Edward Woodward's distressed face. Carrie//Aenigma//wizard horrors expanding in real time. The Appointment's use of time as a powerful silencer is nothing short of masterful. What is this shit even? I was expecting a mediocre English thriller with this vague-ass title. By the end I'm literally not breathing, squeezing Egbert for dear life and then it's over. FUCK.

• Review by Slig001 ★★★½

  A rather perculiar semi-lost British horror filn. The Appointment starts with a bang; a real nicely delivered scare scene, before it settles down into a slow paced family drama centring around a man, his wife and their disappointed daughter who is distraught that her father has to travel to a meeting on the day he was supposed to be watching her in concert. Lindsey C. Vickers' film has a folk horror vibe with a supernatural element. The film is really all about the atmosphere, with an extraordinary amount of the runtime devoted to making the audience feel unsettled. Nightmarish visuals, repetitive images and almost constant droning soundtrack create a sense of foreboding that something is to come. It's one of…

• Review by Elric Kane ★★★★½ 6

  Rewatch new remaster. Tonal dread masterpiece. As close to a Lynchian nightmare as I’ve ever seen.

• Review by David W ★★★½ 4

  Uncannily derivative. Take a shot every time The Appointment parrots such films as Picnic at Hanging Rock, Don't Look Now, Duel, The Omen, Phantasm, and The Changeling, and you’ll be plastered in no time. Throw in the original Cat People and even The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane to hasten the effect. We’re talking pastiche to the max. Even more uncanny is the extent to which The Appointment echoes the rhythms of Next of Kin, though both apparently came out within a year of one another. Furthermore, at the level of narrative and characterization, this film leaves much to be desired. That dog-adorned truck could drive through its plot holes. We’re talking pastiche…and porous.

  And yet…at the level…

• Review by Comicbookfan ★★★½

  The beginning of this film has one of the best jump scares and wtf moments I've seen in a film. This had a folk horror feel at times and was unnerving, the whole film had a atmosphere that something weird was going on even on the slow first half. It builds up until the last 15 minutes where everything let's loose and goes nightmarish. There's a stunt with a car that was brilliant to see.

• Review by SpaghettiNoir ★★★★½ 2

  I initially saw The Appointment years ago, and mistakenly thought it was an excellent, multi-part BBC horror anthology pilot thanks to the muddy and incomplete VHS rip my friend got. Rewatching the recent blu-ray (god bless the BFI) is a whole new experience, and the story hits even harder the second time despite knowing what's in store. This is pretty much top-tier British supernatural and folk horror, in my book.

• Review by Chris Browning ★★★★½ 1

  it took me a while to be convinced, but this is some kind of masterpiece: a bravura opening sequence, followed but what you think of as a plotless lull initially... but then slowly becomes apparent is merely preparing you for the increasingly expressionistic final hour. do i know what's happening? not entirely. i have suspicions, but i think that's why i find it such an exiiting surprise... there's this nagging sense of something *just out of reach* about the whole film. as if the meaning is just outside of your grasp... and even then it may not even have meaning but instead be an experiment in tone and editing and sound design and... oh so much to love here! such…

• Review by Christian Ryan ★★★★ 6

  On nights before I fly, I always have this feeling of irrational dread that I’m going to dream about my plane crashing. It never fails to cause a bit of anxiety, because the next morning, I’d have to seriously consider whether or not to cancel my flight, which would lead to all sorts of logistical nightmares. Fortunately, I’ve never had any such visions, and as one who prides himself on broadly rejecting superstition (unless you’re talking about observing rituals that actually have an impact on reality, like rally caps and not talking about a no-hitter while it’s in progress), I’d like to think I’d have the good sense to board the plane anyway... but who knows? I suppose it’s just…

• Review by Matt ★★★★

  One of the most unnerving and anxiety inducing films I’ve seen in a long time. Truly feels like a nightmare at points. A wholly unique experience.