Walled In - 2009

The movie opens with a scene featuring a little girl trapped in a room filling with cement, this helps to enforce the belief that this is, a horror movie. Before she's entirely engulfed, the opening credits kick in with a montage of police reports and newspaper clippings.

The headlines explain the terrible discovery of 16 bodies cemented into the walls of a building, including that of the architect who designed it. We learn that the person who walled them in, Joseph Malestrazza, was never caught, and then we cut to 15 years later, when the building is planned to be demolished.

Opening Scene


We are introduced to 25 year old, recent-college graduate and future demolition engineer Sam Walczak (Mischa Barton). She's following in the family footsteps of blowing buildings up and her dad has given her a job to demolish a building for a chance to become a partner of the company. Adapted from Serge Brussolo's graphic novel of the same name, Walled In follows fledgling engineer Sam Walczak as she ventures deep into the countryside, where the monolithic Malestrazza Building is being prepared for demolition.

A few crazy tenants still live in the building, although they've received eviction notices. Also residing there are the building's disturbed caretaker Mary (Unger) and her equally disturbed teen aged son Jimmy (Bright).

Sam's mission is to figure out the best places for explosives to bring the complex down, although she seems rather lackadaisical in her approach, as she walks around, shops at the local store, talks to the tenants, and plays old Christmas record albums in the only remaining furnished apartment for guests. She's not exactly focused, in other words.

Many of the previous inhabitants were entombed alive in the massive structure, and the deeper Sam digs into the life details of the eccentric architect who designed it, the more convinced she becomes that she will be the final victim in its malevolent legacy.

Walled In (2009)

While watching it, you'll probably notice the scenes that seem blatantly ripped off of other movies. Ghostbusters, Texas Chainsaw, Silence of the Lambs, Nightmare on Elm Street and Psycho all make their appearances. Sam even describes the building as being "like the Bates Motel, only bigger" and it even has that "One, Two, Freddy's Coming For You" song several times.

The first 30 minutes of the movie is actually pretty good, but I'll save you the time by saying that it went downhill after that. The term "horror" applies only in the vaguest sense, more of a thriller, there is very little gore and not much action offered up either. It just ends up going in the wrong direction at the end. It's still worth a look, I think, and would recommend it to the horror crowd.

Cast:

Mischa Barton ... Sam Walczak
Marissa Cooper on TV's The O.C.

Cameron Bright ... Jimmy
X-Men: The Last Stand (2006), An American Affair (2009)

Deborah Kara Unger ... Mary
88 Minutes (2008), One Point O (2004)

Noam Jenkins ... Peter
Saw II (2005), Saw IV (2007)

Eugene Clark ... Burnett
Land of the Dead (2005)

Rating: 4 out of 5