Apparitions are often confused with hauntings. The difference is that apparitions are live (intelligent consciousness) and hauntings are recordings.

You might think of a haunting as a loop of video or audio tape playing itself over and over for you to watch. Trying to interact with it would be akin to trying to interact with a show on your TV: sure, you can turn it off or change the channel, but I wouldn't expect the actors to suddenly stop and talk to you directly.