20130806: Horror Film Review--The Attic

Name: The Attic (2007)
IMDb: link to The Attic page

Genres: Horror, Thriller    Country of Origin: USA

Cast: Elisabeth Moss as Emma Callan, Catherine Mary Stewart as Kim Callan, John Savage as Graham Callan, and Tom Malloy as Frankie Callan.

Directed by: Mary Lambert.   Written by: Tom Malloy (screenplay and story).

The Three Acts:

The initial tableau: 
The Callan family moves to a new house.  John Savage is the controlling father, Catherine Mary Stewart the former beauty queen mother, Elizabeth Moss the troubled teen, Emma Callan.  At the new home, Moss starts seeing someone who looks just like her.

Delineation of conflicts:
Ninety-five percent of the film is psychological thriller with horrible outcomes.  Everything in the plot can be explained by Emma's family's dynamics and her maladjustment.  The other five percent provide bookends concerning the family that lived in the house before Emma, and the family that would live there afterward.  That would be the horror overlay, the hint that there was something supernatural that contributed to Emma's downfall.

Numerous attempts are made to help Emma come to terms with what she's experiencing: interviews with a physician, a psychologist, a wicca expert, and so on.  She shuts these out, just as she shuts out her friends from the town where she had last lived

Resolution: 
Emma's childhood issues are eating her alive.  One should see the film to see how the tragedy is played out.

One line summary: Dysfunctional daughter crashes and burns.

Statistics:

Cinematography: 8/10 Mostly well-lit and in good focus, with reasonable framing.  Occasionally, a vignette filter was used, which I could have done without.

Sound: 8/10, good but not the best.  In several passages the spoken word seemed hollow.

Acting: 6/10 John Savage gave the performance I expected.  I'd seen Elisabeth Moss in Mad Men and Top of the Lake, and this performance was not nearly as good.  Elisabeth Moss is the centre of the piece, so the whole movie seemed awkward.  Tom Malloy gave a competent performance as the brain damaged brother.

Screenplay: 6/10 Emma's refusals to cooperate with the police resulted in no consequences.  Horror films, and also psychological thrillers, are all about consequences, so this struck me as mighty unlikely.  That her family would allow her self-destructive behaviour to continue was hard to believe.

Final Rating: 6/10