Bloodtype Online

Allumination Filmworks 

    Many moons ago, 1989 to be precise, Mary Lambert gave us a pretty decent adaptation of the Stephen King novel Pet Semetary. Although not as good as the book itself it was still a fine movie. Now, almost 20 years later she gives us The Attic, and I had myself wondering whether or not she could deliver another solid horror entry. 

    In The Attic, a young student, Emma, along with her family moves into a new house. Before too long she starts seeing what appears to be her double, albeit a slightly more disturbing version of herself, but her double nonetheless. Of course no one else can see her, so everyone blatantly assumes that she is going of her rocker. 

    Emma is convinced that her father killed her twin sister not long after she was born, and now he is coming for her. She enlists the help of a detective, who apparently doesn't work with any other detectives in the police department, and her simple brother tries to help her but to no avail. 

    Are these sightings linked to the house itself? Or is she really going mad? To tell the truth I didn't care by the time the closing credits rolled. What started out as a potentially interesting ghost story soon descended into an overly annying psychodrama that made little to know sense in the grand scheme of things. Was Emma's mind being manipulated by the house into her seeing these visions? Who the hell knows, any semblence of reason or interest was lost on me by the fact that the book was bookended by two scenes that really messed up the thought of any logic being displayed here. 

    The Attic may well have worked had it just tried to be one thing or the other, in the end it was just a mess though. In fact the only really effective part of the movie was the opening scene, which we soon learn has little to do with the rest of the movie other than to show us that Emma isn't alone in seeing things. However, due to this it ruins any suspense that the makers try to build later on with the main core of the movie. 

    I ended up having no sympathy for any of the characters and wished they would all just die off rather than subject me to more of their horrendous over-acting; from Emma's overbearing father to her spaced out mother. 

    The Attic failed as a haunted house flick and as a pychological thriller with too much going on but not enough focus on any one element. 

**

-Jude Felton