Fresh and Exciting

Awesome Movie

A lot more amusing than I thought it would be.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

A guy is picknicking with his girlfriend when he has a vision of being in the middle of a ritual with a book, pentagrams, candles, and his naked girlfriend attacks him with a knife. He gets the upper hand and kills her. Then he wakes up right before surgery. They are going to operate on his brain. He tries to resists but gives in. He wakes up in the recovery room. The Dr. tells him years have passed and he's going to transfer him to The House Of Love to complete his recovery. There he meets some more patients- a guy who talks through a handpuppet, a slutty girl, a friendly guy who sometimes is too friendly. But our guy keeps having visions and starts getting suspicious about the House of Love. The Dr. in the meantime watches everything that happens there in a room full of screens and has invited another Dr. to watch and to discuss the case. They discuss implants...and the book.Our hero discovers in the attic a chest, that is somehow connected to him. And inside he finds a passage to a basement that looks like the scene of the ritual. And he finds the book. He also thinks that he is being manipulated and that everyone is part of some elaborate hoax. He keeps having visions of the girlfriend. The friendly guy goes nuts and starts killing people. While the guy continues to search for answers.The Attic Expedition is a confusing movie that doesn't explain itself or give an answer. One can read here on IMDb a variety of interpretations that all sounds plausible. It's also a very low budget movie that occasionally looks pretty good. It's not much of a horror movie more of a mystery thriller. Unfortunately, for it to work it would have to have been more involving or interesting. Since it isn't I didn't care to look for hints or try to figure it all out. And when the story doesn't want to reveal itself either, what's the point? I guess there wasn't a solid story to begin with, just scenes, and lines that our minds are then inclined to try to put together. The set of the House of Love is unfortunately distractingly cheap, perhaps on purpose? But a lot is made about how this movie was done with barely a budget. So one doesn't even know if the shortcomings are just a matter of the story or of necessity. If you like a puzzle then perhaps this is something that might interest you.

This is the type of film that some might say only becomes clear in the final minutes. I'd partially agree with that. A young man wakes from a 4 year long coma to discover that he murdered his fiancé and has been locked in a mental institution. His doctor, seeking to treat him, sends him to The House of Love for therapy. Once there he meets the other patients and is troubled by half realized memories and strange deja vu ... not to mention the murder of some of the other patients. I won't say any more than that plotwise. Andras Jones plays the lead, and I enjoyed his performance. I would have to admit that his acting is inconsistent throughout the film, but somehow, this makes his performance all the more endearing. The inconsistency seems to suit the storyline in a positive manner. Seth Green, who I strongly disliked before this film, has made me a fan. Beth Bates is, to be quite honest, pretty bad performance wise (though gorgeous in my humble opinion). In her defense, much of the little dialog she has, would be tough for even the most talented actress. All of the other actors do a good job. The score is wonderful, the type you'll remember after one viewing. The sets are nice, especially considering the budget, and the film is very well shot. You can probably find the DVD for 10 bucks. A real bargain in my opinion. This is the kind of film that you'll either love or hate. If you love it, you'll likely be left to ponder it for days. I said earlier that I would only partially agree with someone if they said that it only becomes clear in the end. It may become clear, but it raises more questions than an answer should. Bravo!

What prompted me to write this review is that this movie has gotten a 5.3 rating. That's not fair. Fortunately there are promising recent horror movies out there but this one follows a disturbing trend to put out movies which are unwatchable onto DVD. You cannot just shoot scene after scene which has no connection towards each other and put it out like it was a movie. Spaghetti has a certain structure. If it didn't have that structure it wouldn't be spaghetti. Similarly, this movie does not have a structure which from the wildest stretch of imagination could be called a movie. Thus it should never have been released. But of course it was. It's like movies such as the recent similarly uncoherent plot less visionless "The Boogeyman". They are not really movies. And they are not really horror movies.

Whatever your opinion of this movie, there is one universal truth... Insanity. None of the movie is real, there is no magik, no murders, no book, no Faith. This is simply a tumultuous journey through the mind of an insane man. Stop trying to figure it out and look at it exactly as it is. The only constant is insanity obviously fabricated by the mind of a mental patient. At the very end of the movie they show two nurses in what can only be a mental hospital, No Doctor Ek. The nurses are not guessing, but sure that the patient will not wake up, not to say that he cannot wake up, but he is obviously sedated or heavily drugged, which rules out any possibility of a coma as there is no visible life support. There are no scars on his head thus no brain surgery. Think Identity only the personalities do not die when they are killed, all these people are in his head with the exception of the nurses who are indeed real(paranoid schizophrenia), one personality Doctor Eck knows it enough to diagnose it, but the personality called Dr. Ek has an ulterior motive, aka the book of magik, therefore Trevor has no reason to believe that any of the people are not real. Overall this movie was entertaining and well done if you ask me, you can certainly say it has some very good discussion about it, which I am sure was intended.