Secrets in the Walls

Taking a new job in the city, a newly divorced woman and her two teenage daughters move into a grand house and come to discover someone else is living there that has dangerous plans for the family and must save them before it go through.

As this was a typical Lifetime style haunted house film, there's some really enjoyable moments here. What really works here is the fact that this one really makes the ghostly action here that really has an impressive air here. The start here, with the ghost hands appearing from the broken wall after initially finding that secret room, is a good start and as it gets deeper here these get even better with the flicking lights and ballerina box playing constantly whenever someone enters the room start this off quite nicely. Along with the rather creepy way the ghost keeps appearing in short visual cuts of the daughter seeing her around the house and up in the attic, there's a really solid air here that makes the suspected situations come off quite well and giving this something to work with when it gets to the more pronounced ghostly actions. The big encounter here is the scene of her being trapped in the closet and prying it open which rips open her hands as she's released, as well as the later gag of the jewelry box as she walks into the room to watch her sleep, and along with the actual possession scene here where the ghost appears and presents the necklace that leads to the possession which takes place in full-view of the terrified victim for a rather nice amount of fun here. This one also manages to get some nice work her in the final half of the possessed girl around the house giving this a rather fine atmosphere here, which is all enough there to make up for the minor flaws within this. The biggest element against this one is that it all too readily betrays its origins, being filled with all the usual prerequisites for this type of film as there's long stretches of time without any horror angles and too many useless elements merely meant for women to be hooked into watching that have no bearing on the plot as a whole. That usually means that most of the scares here build- up to a drama about her skills as a mother rather than horror angles, and they do cause this some problems because of that. The other main problem here is the rushed finale, as the brawl comes off rather clunky and off-putting by being so stagy, and the events here make it seem even weaker as there's another big problem with the scene away from the ideas behind the scene. While there's some good parts that make for some decent times here and there, these few flaws do hold it back.

Rated Unrated/PG-13: Violence and Language.

Newly divorced Rachel and her two daughters, Lizzie & Molly, move out of their cramped apartment to a spacious new house which is also much closer to Rachel's new work. Everything seems to go fine until Molly starts to see visions of a young girl, and when she tries to explain it to her mother, it gets dismissed as stress of the move and adjusting to a new house. When the strange goings on continue, Rachel decides to do some investigating and not before long she discovers that the house is harbouring a dark secret.

This is a made-for-TV movie and you can tell that as soon as you start watching it. Made-for-TV horror movies generally just do not work and this is a classic example of that as it is pretty dull, there's no real atmosphere, it is not at all scary or creepy, it's very clichéd & predictable, and the acting, while not that bad, is just very wooden.

In fact, it's very much like a "scary movie" for the young teens than anything else. Young teen girls at that, so anyone above the age of 13 and is of the male gender will find this movie to be pretty much a yawn-a-thon.

I wouldn't waste your time with this to be honest as there is much, much better movies out there.

SPOILER: Divorced mum and her two young daughters move into a big old house that's price is too good to be true. Soon strange things start to happen, and just what is that false wall doing there?

Secrets in the Walls doesn't offer up anything new to the haunted house formula, and the premise bears a striking similarity to a Richard Matheson story, but it is effective at what it does. Standard haunted house rules apply, with creaks, a music box, a creepy grate, spooky drawings and boo-jump shocks via reflections and peek-a-boo dark corners. It's competently performed by Jeri Ryan, Marianne Jean-Baptise, Kay Panabaker and Peyton Roi List, Christopher Leitch's direction is up to scratch for the spook and shiver narrative, and the music and photography tech credits are not intrusive and therefore well utilised for sustained suspense.

It's a safe recommendation to fans of the haunted house splinter of horror, and coming out of the Lifetime Movie Network it's impressive to find it's better than a lot of bigger budgeted Hollywood genre pictures that have trundled out in recent years. 7/10

SECRETS IN THE WALLS is yet more of the same old stuff: a struggling single mother moves into a cheap property with her two teenage daughters and soon finds that they're not alone in the creepy old building. Cue CGI-assisted spirits, a heavy debt of inspiration to the likes of THE RING, DARK WATER and classic ghost stories of old, and a general lack of originality.

Jeri Ryan, once a STAR TREK babe, appears tired and haggard in this made for TV outing that provides absolutely nothing new for genre fans. The scare scenes are well choreographed in advance and anything but frightening, and the bits inbetween the spooks are dull and talky.

The production as a whole suffers from that TV-movie style atmosphere in which everything is played safe and no chances are taken with style or plot twists. You'll guess the outcome from the very beginning and the journey to the end makes for one dull ride.

What this low budget movie lacks in originality, it more than makes up for in sheer effort, and a refusal to abandon the classic ghost story. Its the kind of script that if Sam Raimi or James Wan had gotten their hands on, there would be a totally different discussion all around about this movie.

The focused, incredibly simple, mother-daughter premise is worthy of Japanese horror, translated through Lifetime's unique way of doing things. Jeri Ryan's luck as an iconic television actress is all over this project, with music, cinematography and other production values that make this a cut above most tv movies. Ryan as the mother to the two very smart, very pretty daughters seriously adds to the inspired simplicity of this story, which wisely chooses to obey every cliché, until their tragic little narrative point is made. Better than a lot of big budget horror nonsense from Hollywood these days.