''Walled In'' is a 2007 Canadian
horror-
thriller film directed and co-written by
Gilles Paquet-Brenner and starring
Mischa Barton
Mischa Anne Marsden Barton (born 24 January 1986) is a British-American film, television, and stage actress. She began her career on the stage, appearing in Tony Kushner's '' Slavs!'' and took the lead in James Lapine's '' Twelve Dreams'' at ...
,
Cameron Bright, and
Deborah Kara Unger. The film is based on the best-selling French novel ''Les Emmurés'' by
Serge Brussolo. It is Paquet-Brenner's English-language film debut.
Plot
Film opens with a little girl, Julie (Sophi Knight), wakes up to find herself in a small concealed room, confused at what is happening. When the room starts filling with cement from all corners, the girl cries for her father, but the cement only continues to rise, and eventually she is buried alive through the film opens with a grim discovery: sixteen bodies are found entombed within the walls of the building where Julie met her tragic fate.
15 years later Samantha "Sam" Walczak (
Mischa Barton
Mischa Anne Marsden Barton (born 24 January 1986) is a British-American film, television, and stage actress. She began her career on the stage, appearing in Tony Kushner's '' Slavs!'' and took the lead in James Lapine's '' Twelve Dreams'' at ...
) is a recent engineering graduate. At her graduation party, her father, the owner of a demolition company, gives her a gift: a job supervising the demolition of a building in the middle of nowhere. If she is successful, she will become his partner. Sam arrives at the Malestrazza Building, and is greeted by Mary (
Deborah Kara Unger), the caretaker. Sam tells Mary she will be staying in one of the apartments in the building. Jimmy (
Cameron Bright), the caretaker's teenage son, takes her bags to her apartment, previously owned by Julie, and explains the rules of the building: she is to stay off the eighth floor because it is Malestrazza's and the roof because it is too dangerous.
Sam researches the building and discovers that it was the scene of a horrible series of murders where sixteen people were entombed in the walls. Jimmy takes Sam to the eighth floor and tells her how his father was one of the victims, the crime being blamed on a local factory worker. The lights go out, and Sam cuts her leg after panicking in the darkness. Later, Jimmy washes her wound and begins to caress her thigh, but she tells him to stop. Sam begins having nightmares about being entombed in the walls.
Sam's boyfriend arrives, causing Jimmy to grow jealous. While exploring the eighth floor, Sam and her boyfriend discover a secret passage which would allow someone to secretly view any of the apartments. Sam realizes that Jimmy has been spying on her. Later, as Sam and her boyfriend make love, Jimmy watches from behind the walls. The next morning they find his dog butchered. Sam and her boyfriend agree to leave.
Jimmy gives Sam a copy of the journal of Joseph Malestrazza, the building's architect. Sam realizes from reading the journal that there must be a large, open space in the center of the building. Jimmy goes to the roof to look for an opening to the hidden space. When he does not return, Sam and her boyfriend follow. They discover a massive shaft in the center of the building. They hear Jimmy calling from down in the shaft, saying that he is hurt. Sam has her boyfriend lower her into the shaft on a rope, but he is shot and killed, causing Sam to fall to the bottom. Jimmy then mails Sam's demolition report and sinks her car into a lake.
Sam awakens at the bottom of the shaft and discovers that a man is there with her. He is Malestrazza, the architect, who has been trapped there by Mary. He tells her that Jimmy is keeping her down there until she learns to love him. While trapped, Sam learns that Malestrazza orchestrated the murders as a form of
human sacrifice
Human sacrifice is the act of killing one or more humans as part of a ritual, which is usually intended to please or appease deity, gods, a human ruler, public or jurisdictional demands for justice by capital punishment, an authoritative/prie ...
, citing the fact that, of the
Seven Wonders of the Ancient World
The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, also known as the Seven Wonders of the World or simply the Seven Wonders, is a list of seven notable structures present during classical antiquity, first established in the 1572 publication '' Octo Mundi M ...
, only the
Great Pyramid of Giza
The Great Pyramid of Giza is the largest Egyptian pyramid. It served as the tomb of pharaoh Khufu, who ruled during the Fourth Dynasty of Egypt, Fourth Dynasty of the Old Kingdom of Egypt, Old Kingdom. Built , over a period of about 26 years ...
is still standing after thousands of years, because (he believes) it was the only one in which workers were killed and buried during its construction.
Among his victims were Mary’s daughter Julie (the girl seen in the opening scene) and her father, Mary’s husband, which caused a vengeful Mary to imprison Malestrazza. He also tells Sam that Jimmy is nice, but can be very cruel and imaginative when he disobeys Jimmy's orders.
Jimmy sends down a cassette tape, with a message that he wants to see Sam and Malestrazza dance. Sam reluctantly dances, but when Jimmy tells them to kiss, she refuses. Malestrazza pulls her close and forces her to kiss him. After a few seconds, Jimmy tells them to stop and threatens Malestrazza not to touch Sam again. He sends down a basket with food, water, and a two-way radio. He tells Sam to keep the radio with her so that they can talk and be close.
Sam looks for a way to escape and realizes one wall leads to the garbage area. When Jimmy returns, she lies and says that she is hurt and needs medicine. When Jimmy brings her the medicine, she opens the capsules and starts creating a mix to try and blow out the wall to get into the garbage room. Sam's attempt fails, and Jimmy is upset that she tried to escape.
Before Jimmy could exact his punishment, his mother catches him. Mary realizes that Sam is in the hole with Malestrazza. At first she is infuriated with Jimmy as the hole was constructed for Malestrazza and no one else, but realizes Sam now knows too much and they must keep her trapped there as well in order to avoid arrest.
Sam is still stuck in the hole with Malestrazza, who she realizes does not want to escape. This is his tomb, and he picked her to kill him. She eventually does kill him after some taunting, and he thanks her after he falls into his tomb and it begins to fill with cement. Sam is by the wall hoping that Jimmy will come through and save her.
The demolition team arrives and her father asks where Sam is. Mary tells him that she left. Her father says that he thought she would want to see her first building being demolished. Mary is keeping Jimmy calm as they set up and begin to install the explosives. As the countdown begins, Jimmy comes to his senses and runs toward the building for Sam. Sam's father tells them to stop the countdown. At the roof, Jimmy looks down, and her father asks what they have done. Jimmy then throws himself over, killing himself, and lands next to Sam. Sam is then lifted out of the hole and put in an ambulance, just as Mary is being arrested and taken to prison.
Sam narrates that Malestrazza built 27 buildings and that they are all still standing. He considered the Malestrazza building his masterpiece, and there are no current plans to demolish it.
Cast
Release
The film premiered at the
Glasgow Film Festival
The Glasgow Film Festival is an annual film festival based in Glasgow, Scotland. The festival began in 2005. By 2015, the festival had seen audience figures top 40,000 for two consecutive years. It is now considered one of the top film festivals ...
on 20 February 2009.
The film received a
straight-to-DVD release in
North America
North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South Ameri ...
on 17 March 2009.
There is also an accompanying graphic novel by the same name produced by Spacedog, published through
Ape Entertainment, and available in April, 2009.
It was released by Momentum Pictures on DVD on 5 October 2009 in the
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...
.
[Walled In DVD]
FemaleFirst. 8 September 2009
Reception
Because the film has been released straight-to-DVD, it has received limited critical reviews. The film has received a mixed reaction. ''
DVD Talk
DVD Talk is a home video news and review website launched in 1999 by Geoffrey Kleinman.
History
Kleinman founded the site in January 1999 in Beaverton, Oregon. Besides news and reviews, it features information on hidden DVD features known as ...
'' rated the film 3/5 stars, praising the performances of the cast and the effectiveness of the low budget, though the review concluded that the film deserved a stronger conclusion. The film was rated 5/10 by
IGN
''IGN'' is an American video gaming and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa district and is headed by its former e ...
and had conflicting accounts of the performances of the cast, describing Barton as "terrific" and Bright as "wooden."
Walled In DVD Review
IGN. 16 March 2009 ''Real Movie News'' described the film as "atmospheric" and "attractive" but questioned the confused identity of the film.
The British magazine ''FemaleFirst'' gave the film 4 out of 5 stars. They described it a "psychological horror that's sure to send chills down your spine" and continued to refer to it as a "gritty ''Mirrors
A mirror, also known as a looking glass, is an object that reflects an image. Light that bounces off a mirror forms an image of whatever is in front of it, which is then focused through the lens of the eye or a camera. Mirrors reverse the ...
'' meets '' Captivity'' horror thriller will have your heart pounding in your ears."[
]
References
External links
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''Walled In'' DVD review at Dread Central
{{Gilles Paquet-Brenner
2007 films
2009 direct-to-video films
2007 horror films
Canadian independent films
British direct-to-video films
Canadian direct-to-video films
English-language Canadian films
Films based on French novels
Films based on mystery novels
Films set in abandoned houses
Films set in apartment buildings
Films shot in Saskatchewan
British independent films
Films directed by Gilles Paquet-Brenner
Canadian thriller films
British thriller films
2000s English-language films
2000s Canadian films
2000s British films
English-language horror films