This is a movie that really makes you wonder about the casting process. Not that it doesn't have quite a few other flaws, but it's obvious that it could have been a lot better if they had just switched some of the actors around.
Trevor Blackburn (Andras Jones) is a man who doesn't know what's real and what isn't. He remembers having a picnic with Faith (Beth Bates), the woman he loves. But he also remembers her trying to kill him in some sort of magical ceremony. He wakes up from a coma in a private sanitarium, only to be told by Dr. Ek (Jeffrey Combs) that he killed Faith and was in that coma for 4 years. But he also seems to remember Dr. Ek performing some kind of brain surgery on him. Trevor gets sent to the House of Love, sort of a halfway house for the mentally disturbed, where he starts having dreams about a trunk in the attic with a spiral staircase inside it. That's when we find out that Dr. Ek has cameras throughout the House of Love and everyone else there besides Trevor is an actor playing a role. Dr. Ek is looking for a mysterious book, the same book Faith was using in that magical ceremony. Oh, and it turns out that while Faith is dead, that hasn't crimped her style as much as you might expect.
This is one of those movies where reality is more of a multiple choice thing. Is the House of Love real? Is Trevor actually an outpatient with a head of hair or is he a bald, muttering nutjob still wearing a straight jacket? Is the stuff that happens up in the attic real, is it all in Trevor's mind or is there something supernatural going on? Is Dr. Ek really running an elaborate experiment on Trevor because he's desperate to get a magical book, or is it all just a dream taking place during brain surgery? You can never be sure because the movie is never sure. It reverses itself and contradicts itself and sometimes just makes no sense at all. The filmmakers could have taken a lot of the scenes in this movie, switched them around, and it wouldn't really have made much difference.
For all that, it is a rather engaging story until you figure out it doesn't make any sense. There are a few good scares and some decent female nudity and it's not very self-important, so the bad stuff in it is more silly and campy than insultingly stupid.
What really lets the film down, however, is very poor casting. Jeffrey Combs is melodramatic but perfectly fine and the evil Dr. Ek. Seth Green, playing another mental patient/actor, doesn't quite have the chops to create a real character but has enough personality to keep from really sucking. Ted Raimi turns in a professional performance as a doctor who comes to question Ek's methods. Beth Bates even does a credible job as Faith, which is saying something given that she spends just as much time naked as she does clothed. But the main character in the movie is Trevor, played by Andras Jones. Putting it as gently as possible, Andras Jones is a brick. He can say the lines, but that's about as far as his "acting" seems to extend. His struggle with sanity and reality is at the heart of the film but you can't feel anything from his performance, which is flatter than a pancake after it's been run over by a tank.
I'm not sure how good this movie could have ever been, but if they'd just switched the actors around it could have been a lot better. If Combs or Green had been playing the main character, it's so obvious they would have brought a lot more to the story. Considering they're both also more famous than Andras Jones, it doesn't make any sense to place them in supporting roles and let a movie live or die on the back of a guy who no one has heard of and doesn't appear to be able to actually act. Heck, Alice Cooper has a bit part in the film and even he'd probably do a better job and be a better choice for the main character.
There's enough in The Attic Expeditions that you can see how the filmmakers and the actors thought this might be a worthwhile story to tell. But the casting director screwed them and the audience out of whatever that story might have been.
Trevor Blackburn (Andras Jones) is a man who doesn't know what's real and what isn't. He remembers having a picnic with Faith (Beth Bates), the woman he loves. But he also remembers her trying to kill him in some sort of magical ceremony. He wakes up from a coma in a private sanitarium, only to be told by Dr. Ek (Jeffrey Combs) that he killed Faith and was in that coma for 4 years. But he also seems to remember Dr. Ek performing some kind of brain surgery on him. Trevor gets sent to the House of Love, sort of a halfway house for the mentally disturbed, where he starts having dreams about a trunk in the attic with a spiral staircase inside it. That's when we find out that Dr. Ek has cameras throughout the House of Love and everyone else there besides Trevor is an actor playing a role. Dr. Ek is looking for a mysterious book, the same book Faith was using in that magical ceremony. Oh, and it turns out that while Faith is dead, that hasn't crimped her style as much as you might expect.
This is one of those movies where reality is more of a multiple choice thing. Is the House of Love real? Is Trevor actually an outpatient with a head of hair or is he a bald, muttering nutjob still wearing a straight jacket? Is the stuff that happens up in the attic real, is it all in Trevor's mind or is there something supernatural going on? Is Dr. Ek really running an elaborate experiment on Trevor because he's desperate to get a magical book, or is it all just a dream taking place during brain surgery? You can never be sure because the movie is never sure. It reverses itself and contradicts itself and sometimes just makes no sense at all. The filmmakers could have taken a lot of the scenes in this movie, switched them around, and it wouldn't really have made much difference.
For all that, it is a rather engaging story until you figure out it doesn't make any sense. There are a few good scares and some decent female nudity and it's not very self-important, so the bad stuff in it is more silly and campy than insultingly stupid.
What really lets the film down, however, is very poor casting. Jeffrey Combs is melodramatic but perfectly fine and the evil Dr. Ek. Seth Green, playing another mental patient/actor, doesn't quite have the chops to create a real character but has enough personality to keep from really sucking. Ted Raimi turns in a professional performance as a doctor who comes to question Ek's methods. Beth Bates even does a credible job as Faith, which is saying something given that she spends just as much time naked as she does clothed. But the main character in the movie is Trevor, played by Andras Jones. Putting it as gently as possible, Andras Jones is a brick. He can say the lines, but that's about as far as his "acting" seems to extend. His struggle with sanity and reality is at the heart of the film but you can't feel anything from his performance, which is flatter than a pancake after it's been run over by a tank.
I'm not sure how good this movie could have ever been, but if they'd just switched the actors around it could have been a lot better. If Combs or Green had been playing the main character, it's so obvious they would have brought a lot more to the story. Considering they're both also more famous than Andras Jones, it doesn't make any sense to place them in supporting roles and let a movie live or die on the back of a guy who no one has heard of and doesn't appear to be able to actually act. Heck, Alice Cooper has a bit part in the film and even he'd probably do a better job and be a better choice for the main character.
There's enough in The Attic Expeditions that you can see how the filmmakers and the actors thought this might be a worthwhile story to tell. But the casting director screwed them and the audience out of whatever that story might have been.