She Screams, He Screams : Walled In

Walled In
Year: 2009
Director: Gilles Paquet-Brenner
Studio: Anchor Bay Entertainment
Stars: Mischa Barton, Cameron Bright, Deborah Kara Unger
MPAA Rating: R
Running Time: 98 Mins.





“Walled In” is based on the novel written by Serge Brussoll. The film is about an demolition expert, who travels to an isolated apartment building that is slated for demolition. She gets there to find out that a few people are still living in the building. While staying there, the expert begins to find out that the place harbors some dark terrifying secrets. As she digs deeper into the secrets, she finds that some of the residents are buried in those walls, as the killer starting finding out about her curiosity of the place. Now, she is forced to try and find the killer, before the killer makes her the latest victim to preoccupies the building.

Kelsey’s Review:

I have always thought Mischa Barton does her best work in independent films. She proved this at a very young age in the Pups and more recently with The Oh in Ohio. I was hoping this would translate to horror through Walled In. I didn’t have all that high expectations, but was hoping it would have something somewhat original to offer. Not only is the film highly unoriginal and mundane, but Barton gives a very weak performance, perhaps the weakest I have seen of her. Nothing seems natural and we can’t believe her as our protagonist. The more dramatic moments seem really overdone and unrealistic. A better performance is by Cameron Bright of Thank You For Smoking and Running Scared. He shows us a very confused character that has had a dark past. Still this character is really robbed of the depth and engaging mindset that he possesses, by barely being developed . Deborah Kara Unger does pretty well as Mary too, but it seems like her role as the controlling mother could have gone much farther. Pascal Gregory also does well as the architect of the building, Joseph Malestrazza. He is creepy in moments, but it was interesting the changes that his character went through that are a bit different than what we might assume when we first see him.

Walled Up takes from a number of horror movies, such as the song from A Nightmare on Elm Street. We hear the same voice‘s, melody, and pacing. Really the only difference is the words that are placed after the numbers. It also borrows some themes from Psycho through the controlling mother aspect as the mother claims that “she can’t take care of you like I can”. The more obvious reference is when Jimmy tells Sam, “It’s like the Bates Motel, only bigger”. This could have been seen as a tribute to the film, aside from the fact that it took a short cut with this and didn’t develop what could have been a very interesting aspect to the film. Also, the kidnapper really doesn’t have much motivation. The exploration of this should have been dealt with much more than it was.

The setting of this old and dark house did create an eerie setting and as does the place where Sam ends up towards the end of the film. Some of the twists in the film were interesting, but like most things in the film it didn’t develop or challenge this at all. It presents something with potential, but is too lazy for this to really have much of an impact. The direction it was heading in could have been something out of the ordinary at least, but it falls short of the possibility of creating something unique and creepy. There are a number of plot holes that become even more obvious since there aren’t very many positive aspects to get you to forget about this and just enjoy the movie. The film drags quite a bit, trying to create the suspense, but as most of this is just false alarms it isn’t very effective. There really isn’t much character development either, so the time spent with them seems pointless. The last act at least goes in a different direction than what we were given up to that point, but the actual conclusion is a bit too neat. For a film that centers on dead bodies being cemented in to the walls of this old cryptic building, you would think there would be a bit more gore. There are hardly any deaths that the audience gets to witness and cement and dirt are more present in the movie than any blood or even violence. Overall, Walled In is a very forgettable movie that could have gone in an interesting direction, but doesn’t do much due to a poor script and bad acting.

Anthony T’s Review:

This film should have went in an interesting direction, as it would made it more interesting then what was put onscreen. For a film that is supposed to be a supernatural film, this isn’t one. I don’t even know, if I would even consider this as horror film. This really didn’t feel like a horror film or film that you would be interested in. If I’m writing notes twenty minutes into the film, like this movie is going nowhere and every performance has the same boring flatline tone, I know that I’ll be in for one long horror film. That was the case here.

“Walled In” is very dull and very awful. I really don’t know what this movie was trying to be. Director, Gilles Paquet-Brenner didn’t do the film any favors with his direction. This was a slow moving film, where the action and suspense seemed nonexistent. The acting didn’t help matters neither as both Mischa Barton and Deborah Kara Ungar’s performance really gave me no reason to be interested. Their performances felt lifeless, which gave me no interest.

But what really hurt this film was the fact that there had to be problems with the writing process, as they were four credited screenwriters. Brenner, along with Rodolphe Tissot, Olivier Volpi, Sylvain White must had their own vision for this film, as the story can’t decide if it’s wants to be, a supernatural film, a serial killer film, or a crime drama. It seems like, it tries to be everything rolled into one, as this story has an identity crises. The end result is a screenplay that’s heavily flawed. There is no character development or suspense what so ever. Which leads me to say this again, I never cared about the story and the characters.

Enough with this film, as this is just awful. I just can’t write another word without using an F-bomb; this is just a horrible, horrible movie. That’s how I’m disgusted with this film.

Avoid this, at all costs, as “Walled In” should have stayed inside the walls of Anchor Bay.