In a charming and quiet suburban town, Tim and Susan Gates have found their perfect new house, and their lively daughter Kayla has just returned home from college to help with the big move alongside her brothers, Shane and Taylor. But behind the picture of suburban bliss is an altogether more sinister story. During the move, Tim reluctantly reveals his knowledge of the house’s dark past – the story of two small children who drowned in the pool and the parents who were forced to move out due to a foreclosure. As the family settles in to their new home, a series of eerie events begin to suggest that all is not as it should be. Unexplained footsteps, misplaced tools, electronics going haywire and sinister warnings from their new neighbour quickly erode their happiness as anxiety and fear gradually take over their lives. Unbeknownst to them, their cosy little home has an uninvited guest; the deranged previous owner has returned. Living in the walls and obsessively watching the new owners, as the last remains of his sanity disappear, his true intentions become horrifyingly clear…
In the horror world of masked serial killers and paranormal entity’s invading suburban residences, it’s actually quite refreshing to see an ‘ordinary’ if slightly deranged person step up to the challenge and give us something a bit more realistic. It reminded me a lot of the 80’s flick ‘Hider in the House’ starring Gary Busey (the thought of Gary Busey hiding in my house scares me beyond anything imaginable). The casting is good as the family does come across and realistic (apart from a couple of brief questionable scenes that seem a bit silly). A special mention to Steven Weber who’s portrayal of the previous occupant was great and made the role one to remember. It does have quite a few memorable scenes and whilst the tension isn’t high, it does retain a subtle feeling of creepiness and a couple of decent scares as well as some inventive kill scenes. Still having a few cliches such as the all knowing creepy neighbour next door for example, it’s an entertaining, if slightly slow, thriller that’s worth a watch
The Attic is presented on DVD with a 1.78:1 aspect ratio. Pretty sharp throughout. Colours seem a bit dull but suit the cinematography quite nicely. There was some Banding evident in some darker scenes though. No pixelation or macro blocking was observed though.
It was quite strange to see such a new release being given a Dolby Digital 2.0 track. Whether this is down to it’s low-ish budget origins is a mystery but the audio that was listen to seemed decent enough. Dialogue was clear and discrete throughout with the sound effects and music balanced nicely in both front speakers.
No bonus features are included on the disc
Quite a pleasant surprise in all honesty. I wasn’t expecting much but The Attic (aka Crawl Space) kept me entertained throughout. There were a couple of questionable scenes in there but that was my only criticism. The DVD release is ok with video quality that does support it’s realistic and dark themes. The audio was a bit of a letdown as I’m pretty sure a 5.1 mix could of opened up the atmosphere a bit more. Certainly worth a watch though
