Walled In (2009)

Since there are no new horror movies that hit the theaters this week, and I have a week yet before I go to a horror convention that will be showing movies, I had to search for something to review here. I don’t recall where I came across it, either I watched some clips on YouTube, or maybe it was on Amazon. Either way, Walled In is a movie that caught my eye. It was mostly because of the interesting cover art for the DVD. It isn’t great, but it did draw my eyes to it. When I went to Best Buy, not really intending to buy a movie, I noticed it in the just released section, and decided to pick it up. I really should just go to a rental store, it would be a lot cheaper than buying it. I will have to make a mental note about that for the next time.

Walled In starts off with a little girl waking up in a very small space, that is supposed to be inside a wall. As she starts to call out for her dad, cement starts to pour in, and soon covers her completely. One dead child, off to a good start at least. During the credits we see some newspaper clippings about sixteen bodies that were found in the Malestrazza building. The person belived to have killed all these people, by making them part of the building, was never found. Fifteen years later, we meet Sam (Mischa Barton). It is Sam’s 25th birthday, and she has recently graduated from engineering school. Her father has decided to make her a partner in his company, which handles the demolition of buildings. As part of the deal, he has set up her first solo assignment, the Malestrazza building. Sam arrives in Mexico, and learns that there are still four people that are living there. Mary (Deborah Kara Unger), who is taking care of the building, lives there with her teenaged son, Jimmy (Cameron Bright). There is also an elderly lady, and an older black man (I can’t find either in IMDb’s cast listings). As Sam tries to figure out the best way to bring the building down, that is her job in the demolition process, she becomes friendly with Jimmy, who in turn starts to develop a crush on Sam. Jimmy fills her in on what happened in the building all those years ago. How does he know? His dad was one of the sixteen people killed there. Jimmy wasn’t even born yet, but still seems to know a lot about what went on. Jimmy believes that Joseph Malestrazza (Pascal Greggory), the guy that designed the building, will not like Sam demolishing his “master piece,” even though Joseph was one of the sixteen as well, or was he?

Walled In managed to get my attention right from the opening scene. Since readers here may not know me as well, I like horror films where children are killed. For the most part, it is something film makers try and stay away from. In some films it almost feels like they go out of their way to make sure the kid lives, so I like it when a film has the nerve to kill off a kid or kids. After the opening scene though, the plot slows down a lot, with very little happening for almost an hour. This didn’t bother me, but I know it does a lot of other people. We learn about the different people we meet along the way. We find out why everyone is still in the building, what the architect had in mind behind his building, and even why people were killed there. Even though there was nothing exciting going on, the mystery of the building kept me interested all the same. It is the second act of the film that sets up the mystery, and also appears to push the plot into the supernatural. As Sam gets more involved, she starts to hear a little girl singing at one point, and also has a very strange dream. Just when this is starting to get set up, is also when Walled In takes a whole different path. I guess I should be thanking the writers for not taking the obvious path, but it was this shift that made me feel let down. I knew that Walled In had a crime mystery worked into it, but it still could have gone down any other path. It could have been just a crime mystery, or it could have been a slasher as well. When it started to go down the supernatural path, I started to get excited, since that is probably my favorite subgenre in horror. I didn’t care for the misdirection ploy this time around. This new direction causes some plot holes that are never fully explained as well.

Walled In is very light when it comes to effects. There is a little bit of blood in one scene, but that is it really. The cement was actually colored applesauce. This was explained in the only extra on the DVD, the making of extra. Some don’t care for the extra, but at least they put something in, which is more than I can say for a lot of other DVD releases. Anyway, I found the use of applesauce to be very creative. The acting was well done across the board. Mischa Barton is mostly known for the TV show The O.C., but she has been in a couple of horror movies before this one (Octane & The Sixth Sense). I’m not sure if this was her first lead role in a film or not, but I thought she did a pretty good job with it. Cameron Bright has the moody teenager down fairly well. I thought he could have done a little better in some scenes, but it wasn’t anything really bad. It would have been nice if Deborah Kara Unger could have been in more scenes. The few scenes she has with Bright tend to be on the creepy side.

Walled In marks the first American film by director Gilles Paquet-Brenner. The film itself was done very well. The sets, and the building, add a lot to the mystery. I was a little surprised people would actually live there, since it doesn’t look all that appealing to me. Still, I can’t complain about the way the film was shot, or the editing, and things like that. All the more disappointing then that I didn’t like this film more. Actually it was very close as far as my rating. I liked this film, but because of the weak third act, I have to give it a slightly lower rating than I really wanted to. Maybe worth a rent, or a watch if it hits cable somewhere.

2 out of 5 Wondering what could have been