Secrets in the Walls

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

The stage curtains open ...

I was bored today, and was swiping through some YouTube Free With Ads movies, and came across this one. I thought .. why not? I've been on a kind of ghost story kick lately, and I was just recently surprised with how much I liked "Our House", so I was hoping lightning would strike twice. Well, it didn't. I found out later it was made-for-tv, so that explains part of it. So ... here;s what it's about.

A woman and her two daughters are adjusting to life after a divorce with the ex-husband moving away to the Big Apple. Determined to start a new life together, the three move into an older home in a storied town. At first glance, it is too good to be true. Lots of space, beautifully re-modeled on the inside, and yet a nice warm, homey feel to it. Except to the youngest daughter, who feels something is off. As time goes by, they find they are not alone in that house. They need to cast aside what they know to be true, and believe in things they never have before if they want to make it out alive.

Yawn. This is as color-by-numbers and cookie cutter as it gets. The daughter who sees things and nobody believes her. The psychic friend at work. A music box that turns on by itself at all hours. Ghost;s reflections in the mirror. Visiting the library to discover a hidden news article. A trapped spirit trying to communicate and break free ... on and on and on we go. We've seen this movie already 100 times, some done better, some done worse.

It was well shot, and the use of colors and shadows were well done. The acting was decent, not great, not bad. Dialogue pretty average. This is a movie to throw in when you don't really care what you watch, and it won't scare you. It might amuse you, but nothing special. I can't recommend "Secrets in the Walls". It is average and just kind of there. If I never see it again, I won't miss it. If this sounds like something you'd enjoy, then you might.

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.

I deserve some type of award or congratulations for watching the entirety of this putrid film dubbed a scary movie. If this was a scary movie it was definitely a scary movie for kids because it didn't even nudge the spook-o-meter.

What is clear is that, although I watched this on Netflix, this was a made-for-T.V. flick complete with television cinematography, a weak script and fades to black at teaser moments. This sanitized movie with squeaky clean language, bland characters and even blander dialog was like a Disney Channel Halloween special. "Secrets in the Walls" could've been rated G.

This production offered nothing by way of originality, drama, intensity or simple interest. Even the music defied what the movie was trying to achieve... Or what was this movie trying to achieve?

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.