Walled In Traps Viewers in Their Seats: Movie Review

Director: Gilles Paquet-Brenner.

Writer(s): Serge Brussolo, Gilles Paquet-Brenner, Rodolphe Tissot, Olivier Volpi, and Sylvain White.

"Walled In," is a thriller about boyhood love and the potential madness of genius. Taking place primarily on one large set the obsessive love story takes a long time to generate any momentum. Cameron Bright plays Jimmy, a somewhat brilliant young adult who is maturing into manhood and beginning to come to terms with his desire for Mischa Barton as Sam. An overbearing mother complicates the story by subtly introducing an incestuous undertone that dements the boy's understanding of true love. And not wanting this pretty, youthful girl to leave him, this young man traps Sam in the center of the building that is more like a well than any type of housing infrastructure. The architect of this maze-like building, Malastraza is another unwilling prisoner of Jimmys who seems completely out of touch with reality as he rambles on through most of his scenes. A subtle misdirect from the writers makes the killer, in the film appear to be Malastraza when in fact the main antagonist is the child-like Jimmy.

A few plot devices that involve; ancient Egyptian structures, sacrifices and a small group of disgruntled tenants attempts to create some interest in the film. Opening "Walled In," with an action sequence and murder that transitions into the credits is the action highlight of the film and director Gilles Paquet-Brenner seems to forget about pacing or intensity through the rest of the film. The final climax, which surprises slightly and revolves around a very psychologically sick man begging for death, in order for him to re-enact some type of Pharaoh like entombing. But this additional sacrifice and death adds nothing to an already bizarre film. Malastraza's death does not create interest primarily because this character only gets an introduction in the last thirty minutes of "Walled In." Several other previous characters, who are not shown in "Walled In," become part of this architectural structure that looks to be more suitable for the moon than a barren prairie field.

Low in budget and sparse on creativity "Walled In," provides a very minimalist film that fails to entertain. Few viewers are likely to get through the first thirty minutes as characters develop agonizingly slowly and the origins of the building are given a short story for no apparent reason. Even at the halfway point, with the introduction of Peter (Noam Jenkins), Sam's boyfriend and a possible source of the previous murders, an elderly Afro-American the film just does not generate any excitement or rising tension. Only in the final act, within "Walled In," does any type of conflict begin between Jimmy and the object of his desire, Sam. Yet, by the time this tragic love story finally unfolds most viewers will be looking for the stop button or screaming at the screen.

Not suitable for the horror genre "Walled In," is a straight-to-DVD production that does not offer enough complexity of story or characters to make for an interesting watch. Possibly due to the difficulty of translating Serge Brussolo's novel to the cinematic sphere "Walled In," fails to capture the imagination or deliver interesting action sequences. If as a movie watcher you have an interest in architectural thrillers then check out Brussolo's novel "Les Emmures," and leave this film on video store shelves.

4 Eye Gouging Skulls out of 10.

A theatrical trailer for "Walled In," here:


Sources:

Walled In at IMDB

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