One good thing about the newest generation of horror film directors is their willingness to move on to something different, to make horror films with new ideas and stories rather than just rely on the tried and true. It may not always make the best film or the scariest, but at least they make the attempt and deserve credit for doing so. Such is the case with WALLED IN.
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The film opens with a young child trapped in a tall yet small cell, perhaps 2 feet wide. As she calls for her father, the cell beings to flood with a dark bluish gray substance we can only assume is concrete. It fills until it covers her and we move forward to the present day.
Mischa Barton plays Sam Walczak, a young woman who has just graduated from her training as a demolition engineer. Belonging to a family and demolitionists, it is her job to study the structure of a building and decide the best way to bring it down. As a graduation gift, her father presents her with the task of setting up the demolition of a building made by a famous architect.
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Arriving at the location, she is stunned to find that the building stands alone in the middle of nowhere. The building is a huge apartment complex. The inhabitants left in the building are sparse at best. They include the landlady Mary (Deborah Kara Under) and her strange son Jimmy (Cameron Bright), an elderly woman who was secretary to the architect and still houses many of his records/books in her apartment and a vet who lives there as well.
As Sam wanders the halls and checks out the building for stress points, she is observed by someone. We discover that it’s Jimmy, who is attracted to her, yet definitely too young. Sam sees this and although engaged, somewhat flirts with the boy in the hopes of learning more about the building.
Jimmy does reveal a lot about the building and its architect. It seems that the building was the site of a nefarious murder many years prior, one that took the life of his father. While a handy man was blamed for the deaths, it was thought that the architect was behind them all, especially since he disappeared shortly after they occurred. In all, 16 people were missing and a few were discovered, cemented into the walls of the building.
Sam and Jimmy continue to look through the building, including a secret room that always remains locked upstairs. While there, Sam witnesses Mary talking to one of the walls and acting strangely. As she wanders these halls, her own sense of fear and claustrophobia take hold and she begins to feel as if she’s being watched. Good call.
Someone is watching Sam. But just who is it and what they want aren’t revealed until near the end of the film. And just what evil presides over this house and why don’t come out till the building is nearly destroyed with Sam in it.
The majority of this film is build up and revelation as to the secrets of the building and its designer. Like an onion, pieces are peeled back and we discover not only the secret of the complex itself but that of its tenants and the reason it was built like it was. Giving up that information here might provide you with some answers, but the development of those answers are what actually make this movie better than one would expect.
Suffice to say that there is an evil here and one that affects all who enter. And it’s not simply one person keeping an eye on the others but more than one. The last portion of the film, perhaps 30 minutes or so, deal with what happens when Sam discovers the evil behind the building and her attempts to escape from it.
The acting here isn’t the best but not the worst either. Barton does a standard job but you sometimes question why the character doesn’t just stop digging into the secrets and call for back up from her family. If it’s simple pride because it’s her first job, okay but still, when in over your head, look for help.
Bright as Jimmy is an odd choice. Having seen him in several other films, his characters always seem a bit off. It’s as if you know up front that he’s troubled and going to be behind a lot of what’s going on. While he does a good job, perhaps someone else might have been a less obvious choice for the role. Then again, maybe he isn’t what he seems to be at first. You’ll have to watch to find out.
The movie clocks in at 91 minutes and all offer an interesting tale of horror that doesn’t rely on gore or chainsaws. Instead we get a thoughtful well thought out plot that makes you glad you’re not renting here. It’s that sort of creepy old dark house feeling you got from classic films and yet it takes place in a modern setting. The spirits are definitely up to something here and just what or who isn’t something you’re likely to guess up front. For an interesting horror film that delivers, this one comes off pretty well.
Walled In (Gilles Paquet-Brenner, 2009)
The trailer for Walled In was hands-down the best trailer I’ve seen so far in 2009. That always means one of two things: either the movie it belongs to is going to be eight different kinds of totally awesome or one of the worst movies I see that year. And while Walled In has its flaws, it’s definitely closer to the awesome side of the equation. In fact, I’d call it the best movie I watched this week without much hesitation.
Sam Walczak (The Oh in Ohio’s Mischa Barton), a newly-minted engineer at her father’s demolition firm, gets sent on her first assignment–the government-ordered demolition of a high-rise apartment building in the middle of nowhere. The building still has a few quirky inhabitants, most notably the caretaker, Mary (Paranoia 1.0’s Deborah Kara Unger), and her lonely son Jimmy (Cameron Bright, who will soon become the heartthrob of teen girls everywhere in New Moon and Eclipse). Jimmy and Sam hit it off, though Jimmy seems to be reading a bit more into it than Sam intends. Things get a touch tense when Sam’s boyfriend (Saw IV’s Noam Jenkins) appears, but the romantic entanglements take second fiddle to the ghosts wandering around the place. You see, the nutzoid architect who built the place entombed sixteen people in the foundations of the building. While they were still alive. And they ain’t happy.
No, the movie is not without flaws. Yeah, there are some minor plot holes (I think the people who were complaining that the movie was one big plot hole just weren’t paying close enough attention), and some of the acting was worse than average, but about ten minutes into this movie, I started saying to myself, “who is this kid playing Jimmy? ’cause man, he’s good.” Unger is always a treat, and Barton is always at least capable. The plot is a lot of fun, and the haunted house theme just never gets old; just in the past decade we’ve had six or seven really good haunted house flicks to balance out the junk. Paquet-Brenner brings in some very cool variations on the theme to keep things fresh here, and it works. I just have one request: can someone translate the Serge Brussolo novel from which this film is adapted? I’ve gotta get my hands on this. *** ½
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