I personally am a fan of both Seth Green and Jeffrey Combs, and so a horror collaberation between the two got me interested straight away. However ‘Horror in the Attic’ as it’s known here in the UK (‘The Attic Expeditions’ elsewhere), is both weak and bitterly disappointing. I have waited a very long time to catch this movie and like I said previously my like for two of the cast members almost put in my head a pre-meditated seal of quality.
Trevor wakes from a coma in the care of Doctor Ek, played by Jeffrey Combs. After finding out he was responsible for the murder of his sweetheart he is soon put into a special home with other ‘supposed’ mental illness patients, sickenly named the house of love. Trevor struggles with flashbacks and dreams in the house, as he tries to remember his past. And as Trevor tries to unravel the mysteries of the house and his past I felt myself struggling along with him. All this trapped in the inner mind stuff seems neither original or executed well enough.
The film itself opens with atmospheric dwindling music and I was beginning to think this could be one of those over looked horror gems. But sadly not. Andreas Jones’ (Trevor) performance is both non-engaging and overly wooden. Which is an unfortunate drawback as in the beginning this is exactly where we need to get involved with the character. And then that dwindling music makes several reappearances throughout the runtime. And so the potential for originality displayed in the opening seconds is suddenly cut short.
Jeffrey and Seth however gave solid performances – well up to scratch with the material they were given. Boobies and other sexually charged eye candy occasionally lifts its head to try and stimulate the now deliriously confused viewers’ brain. But eventually the madness soothes and the weirdness settles.
OVERALL SUMMARY
Repetitive tunes, under par lead performances, and an overly complicated plotline make this scarier sounding title than actual movie second-rate. The tagline sums up the whole experience. ‘His search for peace of mind…will leave his mind in pieces’; well that’s exactly how my mind felt after this experience. It’s low scoring here is for sheer lack of fulfilling its potential.
