The Attic Expeditions (2001) User Reviews

Difficult Film to Follow, Might Be Worth It

[gavin6942 · 5/10 · 25 February 2009]

Trevor Blackburn is put under psychiatric care after killing his girlfriend and then going into a four year coma. As part of his treatment, he is placed in Love House, a community of nuts hoping to become rehabilitated. But why can't Trevor recall the murder he's accused of?

Other people -- at least two -- have called this a "thinking man's horror film", and I'm going to join them. The events are shown out of order, usually out of context, and even once the film is completed you may or may not have understood everything that happened. At one point, there's even a nod to H. P. Lovecraft, though as near as I can tell, this film has no direct connection.

The "thinking man" aspect is either going to intrigue you or frustrate you. I am a thinking man, as is my friend Seth who watched it with me, and we were frustrated. Had it not been for our man-crushes on Jeffrey Combs and Ted Raimi, the film probably would have been turned off. Now that I've seen it through, I'm curious to watch it again knowing the answers from stage one... but only so I can understand it, not because I think I'll like it.

While Combs and Raimi made the film enjoyable, and a brief Alice Cooper was nice (anyone seen "Prince of Darkness"?), what I really disliked was the actor playing Trevor, Andras Jones. Jones simply can't act for dog snot in this picture, comes off as not knowing his own emotions and more often than not is just lost. I didn't care about him, and as a lead, that's horse apples. His supporting actor, Seth Green (playing "Douglas"), wasn't much better. Green has his moments and this wasn't one of them.

There's some minor gore, some drug use, a fair dose of sexuality... so that's good. And director Jeremy Kasten does a fine job at the helm. One scene follows Seth Green around a game room and is executed flawlessly. This is probably more due to the cinematographer, but regardless it stood out. Kasten went on to make "The Thirst" (which I enjoyed) and the remake of "Wizard of Gore" with Crispin Glover. This was his directing debut, and a job well done.

I picked this film up used for $2.99 on the power of Jeffrey Combs alone, and it was worth that for the viewing... if you can find the same deal, pick it up. Or rent it. Don't buy this one, unless you really want to irk your friends and ruin a good night of drinking. Usually I drink during horror films, and on this one I didn't. Good thing, or I never would have made it through. Thinking man, yes. Drinking man, no.

Not as smart as some say, pretty simple really.

[Company_of_Wolves · 5/10 · 5 September 2005]

Horror in the Attic Late night horror movie on the Horror Channel. It made a desperate stab at being a complex psychological horror, but ended up being boring and falling into the same trap as almost all modern horror films. There is no real atmosphere, it felt very phoney and just very typical. The complexity of it seemed just tacked on and was not very complex at all.

I'd read it was a "thinking man's horror film" and in the vein of Lovecraft, but it was far from it. I found it rather simple and pointless. If you really were a "thinking man" then this isn't going to make you think, try "Jacob's Ladder". And for being like "Lovecraft", the man didn't fill his stories with sex and nudity, while this film has two sex scenes and more nudity. Just making vague references doesn't make it like something. If that were the case then here: "God" - now this post is like the Bible.

Slightly above average horror movie, but better than most of today's American tripe.

too many twist

[movieman_kev · 4/10 · 28 May 2005]

Trevor (Andras Jones from Nightmare on Elm Street 4 and Sorority babes in the Slimeball Bowl-a-Rama) kills his girlfriend and is sentenced to a stay in the half way house for loons by Dr. Elk (genre staple Jeffrey Combs). But things are not nearly what they seem. I wanted to like this I really did, and to it's merit it did start off rather well, but as it went on it became a casualty of too many twists spoiling the stew. The ending is anti-climatic as well and left me thinking "Is that it???" I read that this is a 'thinking persons' horror film. I'm sorry but that's pretty laughable as anyone with half a brain could follow it. Mindfu@k movies can be good, when they have a point to them (ie. Fight Club, the Twin peaks series) But this isn't one of those.And Seth Green isn't really the best actor in the world to put it diplomatically.

My Grade: C-

DVD Extras: both widescreen and fullscreen versions; behind the scenes featurette; and Theatrical trailer

Eye Candy: Beth Bates shows everything, Shannon Cleary goes full frontal

Curiouser and curiouser...

[fauxgina · 4 August 2002]

I am honestly not sure what to make of this film. When I came here to read the reviews, it was mainly to find out what the heck had happened, why I was left so confused and frustrated when the credits rolled. This and Mulholland Drive are two of the most confusing movies I have ever seen, and I have the distinct impression that one of two things happened with each movie: either the film was incredibly well-done, well-acted, well-shot, and well-written and just flew over my head because I'm too stupid to understand it, or it was shoddily written and pieced together like a puzzle assembled by a drugged, blindfolded, mitten-clad psycho. I'd like to think that I'm intelligent enough to pick up on clues in a movie, so the fact that both of them left me so puzzled frustrated me beyond belief.

Having read the reviews, I have a better understanding of what Attic Expeditions was about. I'd like to give it a third viewing (yes, I've already watched it twice, to no avail) and see if I can actually follow it. I enjoyed Seth Green's performance, although I can see how he might be chided for copying Brad Pitt's "12 Monkeys" character. I enjoyed the way the movie was shot, I enjoyed the twisted-ness of it. Some of it was awkward and predictable, but only at the last minute. You'd be given a tiny clue about something, then you'd guess what it was and right away you'd be rewarded with the information you just guessed.

I'm sorry if this is obtuse, but I'm trying not to give anything away here. If you're curious to know what I thought upon my third viewing after knowing more of what it was about, feel free to e-mail me. Or maybe I'll leave another review here. Or maybe I'll just take the DVD, toss in onto a burning pile of other movies I hated, and never look back.

Stay tuned.

Stop the Insanity!

[jaylee33 · 1/10 · 19 August 2003]

If this is some hackneyed tribute to H. P. Lovecraft, it falls short. Really short. Those of you out there who have actually read Lovecraft will hear mention of Azathoth, the Old Ones, and seemingly blatant references to the Necronomicon. But does it make ANY sense, or add value to the plot? None. In fact the whole movie is a big tease.

Those reviewers who believe this film is for the "thinking man" and not for stupid people who can't understand its convoluted plot are being unfairly condescending. They probably didn't even catch the mumbling Lovecraft references because they were too busy not reading books and mistakenly thinking they understood the plot and everything in it. Good luck. A word for the MTV generation-- a good story is not a downfall in a film. Confusion and mindf*cking are not the signs of genius. It is a trick to make you think you are smarter than you are.

This film is not hard to understand, it is just disappointing once you figure out you wasted nearly 2 hours of your time thinking about it at all. It is purposefully confusing. If you want to spend your money on that, have at it.

The whole thing seems painfully staged. The dialogue is uncomfortably stinted like an adapted stageplay, or a bad attempt to gain atmosphere by copying the cadence in David Mamet's works on film. (Hint: It works for Mamet.) Normally Seth Green is great, but I get the feeling the director asked him to play the character as two dimensional as possible. (And very much a pasty rip-off of Brad Pitt in 12 Monkeys, as mentioned before.)

Jeffrey Combs is the best part of this movie in his white suit and cool redneck sideburns. Too bad he has so little screen time. Raimi is not bad, either. But really folks, if you are looking for good content and strong story, don't be fooled. Don't be intrigued by the comments about how deep it is, that only the special few who use their brain can understand it. Don't think of it as a challenge. The story is simply uninteresting and indulgent.

It can be compared to Mulholland Dr., but only in the structural sense. Kasten ain't David Lynch.

Good premise, poor execution

[Claes_R · 3/10 · 14 January 2006]

The story, which reminds me of awakening from a bad dream, makes for an interesting movie. The main character, Trevor Blackburn (Andras Jones), convicted for the murder of his fiancée, has been left in the care of psychiatrist Dr. Ek (Jeffrey Combs). As a result of Dr. Ek's treatment Trevor suffers amnesia. Viewer and main character alike are challenged with separating dream from reality as the main character pieces together his memories. There is an occult dimension in the movie but its significance is never elaborated in the open ended script. However, the script is elegant and leaves ample room for interpretation.

Rather disappointingly though, the atmosphere never builds dense enough to support the story. I blame this on the hallmarks of low budget production that shine through. Acting is wooden and the set decor and make up kitschy. There is not a single interesting camera angle throughout. However, the score is quite good, as was the opening credits.

Within the group of small budget horror movies I'd give this movie an eight, however, given that this is not a cult movie and there are so many better movies out there, I've settled on a 3.

Confusing, pretentious junk

[Coventry · 3/10 · 7 September 2012]

I've rarely felt as disappointed from watching a horror flick as after "Horror in the Attic" … I looked forward to this film because of the seemingly innovative basic premise, some of the names in the cast and the director (whose other movies "The Wizard of Gore" and "All Souls Day" intrigued me to say the least). However, it quickly becomes apparent that this is an overly ambitious – on the verge of pretentious, even – and wannabe be intellectual psychological thriller that is more confusing than compelling and much more annoying than frightening. Surely you'll encounter many reviews stating that "Horror in the Attic" is a truly amazing and brilliant film, and these are also the exact same reviews that will claim that if you don't like it, well, you don't "get it". Don't worry about that. I've seen my share of psychedelic cinema classics, including the whole oeuvres of Alejandro Jodorowsky, David Lynch and Fernando Arrabal, and let me assure you this nearly doesn't play in the same league. The plot contains a few noteworthy fresh ideas and Jeremy Kasten maintains the sinister atmosphere for quite a long time, but then the film irrevocably drowns in its own pool of pseudo-mystery and audacity. The story's protagonist, Trevor Blackburn, awakes from a coma and the (clearly capricious) Doctor Ek bluntly tells him that he remained unconscious for four years after murdering his fiancée in a pagan ritual. The house where he supposedly committed his hateful crime turned into an alternative type of sanitarium in the meantime, and naturally Trevor gets submitted here, in the good (?) care of Dr. Ek's colleague Dr. Thalama. Meandering through the house – and particularly the attic – Trevor's amnesic mind slowly begins to function again and he discovers that Dr. Ek is a manipulative crook. I'm strongly convinced that, with a slightly more straightforward scenario and a lot more bloody action, "Horror in the Attic" could have been a modest cult gem. Now it's just a largely dull, derivative and pretentious flick with only a few isolated highlights. The acting performances of the lead actors are rather forgettable… I spent the entire movie wondering where the hell I saw that guy Trevor's face before, but frustratingly didn't find the answer. Only afterwards, through clicking on his name here on the website, I remembered that he appeared in my favorite "Nightmare on the Elm Street" sequel, namely part four "The Dream Master". Seth Green's performance is a pitiable imitation of Brad Pitt in "Twelve Monkeys" and the luscious Beth Bates is only granted the opportunity to show off her beautiful body instead of her acting capacities. The supportive cast is what's most interesting here, with interesting (albeit typecast) roles for veteran actors Jeffrey Combs ("Re-Animator"), Wendie Robie ("The People Under the Stairs") and Ted Raimi ("The Evil Dead"). Perhaps the weirdest moment in this overall weird movie is the cameo appearance by rock star Alice Cooper. Keep an eye open for that!

Plot synopsis

[doxxas22 · 7/10 · 30 April 2005]

(SPOILER ALERT ...)

This movie is about the hero's (Trevor's) need to extricate his soul from a demonic/satanic ritual. That is, after killing Faith, he aborts said ritual (by not killing himself), putting his soul in limbo. The mad scientist somehow finds this out and kidnaps him to find the book used for the ritual. The (incarnate) earthly and trapped parts of his soul wake up from the mad scientist's implantation surgery (which is supposed to allow the mad scientist to read Trevor's thoughts(?)) at almost the same time. (To see this, note that the earthly part wakes up from the implantation surgery just before the one nurse says that her shift is over, while the tormented half wakes up two or three seconds later, just after.) Further evidence that they awaken in parallel realities is that the residents and principals of the "House of Love" introduce themselves to Trevor the second times he awakens, whereas Trevor already knows them. Trevor's knocking on both sides of the trunk (later on) further illustrates this point.

Trevor must reunite his ripped, tormented soul. Unwilling to relieve this tension by letting Faith kill him--to complete the ritual--he follows his dreams/visions. He therefore gravitates to the trunk in the attic. The significance of the trunk is revealed in the magic attached to it, which is revealed in the implicit inability of the mad scientist and others, and the explicit inability of Douglas, to open it; the trunk is controlled by a force which allows only Trevor to use it. Inexorably, the pieces of his soul meet (on either side of the opening to the trunk) and unify. Trevor's torment, and the film, abruptly resolve. His painful dreams evaporate and he regains his earthly existence.

Not even Jeffrey Combs can save this film.

[gingersnps · 3/10 · 20 July 2002]

I was expecting this movie to be pretty good from all the hype I was hearing. Also, I figured with Jeffrey Combs and Seth Green it couldn't be all that bad. I was wrong. This movie is slow, predictable, and the acting is pretty bad. I recommend not seeing this movie and renting an enjoyable Jeffrey Combs film such as Re-Animator or House on Haunted Hill (1999).

Weird?!

[sugar-bear · 6/10 · 11 April 2005]

I remember being really confused the first time I saw this. But after watching it twice, I was starting to understand more of it. This is a movie that if you don't give it your undivided attention, you will get lost in it like I did. It's about this guy named Trevor who doesn't remember killing his girlfriend. He wakes up in a mental hospital and is very confused how he even got there. He's had brain surgery and is then sent to live in a house where he can recuperate. He begins having nightmares about the attic in that house. We later learn that that same house is where his girlfriend was murdered. His memory begins to catch up with him and then he learns that his recuperation was actually a test his doctor was giving him and the other mental patients are in fact just actors. Wendy Robie did an excellent job as Abbey. How she looks exactly the same as she did 10 years ago is beyond me. Too bad her character got killed. I would've liked to see more of her. Towards the ending I kinda felt like I was watching a porno flick. It was so unnecessary to the film. Oh well...Ted Raimi was great too!!

Waste of time....

[mkrakstad · 1/10 · 16 January 2006]

Me and some friends rented this... "Why?" I hear you ask... We thought it was fate that had lead us to this cinematic piece of art. Little did we know that it in fact, actually did (believe it, or not) SUCK! I have seen some bad movies in my time... but this is without a doubt the worst ever. It actually made "Tale of the Mummy", Trance (aka Kiss of the Mummy w/ Christoffer Walken) and any given Mr. Ed episode look like cinematic art that could surpass each and everyone of the Lord of the Rings Movies.... My movie-taste feels raped, and it's unsettling to know that money was paid to watch it :-( ... That's probably the most kind words I can use to describe that thing I refuse to call a movie...

Original and Entertaining

[iamanangelchaser · 9/10 · 8 May 2003]

This movie has exactly the right balance between horror and humor and, more importantly, between revealing too much and revealing too little. Some questions are answered at the end, but some are not, and I for one like that some are not. It is not a pat, boil-in-the-bag horror movie. It is intelligent and requires that you pay attention, but it's not as if that's terribly hard to do, because it succeeds in being entertaining throughout. Those expecting pornographic vivisections will be disappointed; compared to movies like "Hellraiser," this film is more rightly classified as "psychological thriller" than horror. It remains an excellent movie, however, and if you don't get it maybe you ought to watch again. Pay a bit more attention next time.

The Attic Expeditions

[Scarecrow-88 · 7/10 · 21 January 2007]

Trevor Blackburn(Andras Jones)is an amnesiac told by his psychiatric doctor, brain specialist Dr. Ek(Jeffrey Combs as eccentric as ever)that he was an unhinged, hard-to-handle criminal who was behind the murder of his lover Faith(Beth Bates). Ek sends him to the House of Love, supposedly a mental recuperation center for others with insanity issues. Ek wishes for Trevor to regain his buried memories and place his confounding images into their proper context. What Trevor doesn't know is that Ek has cameras throughout the house, set up to study him. He has also planted actors in the house to pose as mental patients so to increase Trevor's mental collapse. What's sad is that Trevor is really nothing more than a lab animal for Ek's experimentation..tampering with his mind until he snaps. What Ek is really after is a book of magick for which Trevor only knows it's whereabouts. We also get a peek inside the madness within Trevor's mind where we see weird, often homicidal, images. We get visions of a reoccuring dream Travis has of an attic with a trunk. That trunk symbolically represents his mind..inside it is what has been locked away from him. The mystery of that book is really at the heart of this crazy little movie.

Call it what you want. Wacky. Quirky. Colorful. Dizzying. Director Jeremy Kasten keeps the viewer on edge so we can experience the same hysteria like Trevor. The film even offers up the idea that Faith's being has came to life within Trevor's mind to get that book using someone in the House of Love as a host to kill him. Supposedly in that magick book is a key to immortality, but Trevor and Faith had to die together. But, you're never quite sure what is going on which is either part of the fun or agony depending on how much the viewer likes being pulled on the tail. Lots of B-actors here like Combs as the doctor, Ted Raimi as a writer who bares witness to Combs' madness and becomes threatened by him, Seth Green as "loony" Douglas who becomes a possible ally to Trevor.

The film is really a visual marvel on such a low budget and a credit to imaginative filmmakers who really want to mind-screw you.

Yes, confusing is clever

[captain-54 · 2/10 · 10 July 2002]

Again, we see what could be a really good movie fail. This time a "new" director decides to "break the mold" and be "stylish" and "edgy". What does this mean? It means that someone will take a small budget, second rate actors and a horribly written script and make a movie that is a miasma of looks and scenes that confuse you. You will then be told how clever it is and that you didn't get it. You, however, are in the majority, as this thing runs, not walks, straight to video. So learn the catch words people "Edgy, stylish, innovative, clever" = "Not released in theatres because people would riot"

"thinking man's horror film"

[exoticafan · 14 March 2003]

The above tag line is a tip-of-the-hat nod to a previous IMDB user, and I agree. Seriously, I have never read such a deep divide in viewers over a horror movie! I have to wonder about people who call this movie "boring." What do audiences want from horror films today? There is real fear, dread and (most importantly) disorienting. I must agree that many younger minds with short attention spans will not enjoy this movie, but if you were intrigued by 12 Monkeys, Memento, Eraserhead, and other movies you HAD TO WATCH AND THINK ABOUT, I highly recommend this movie. Don't like loose ends? Tough! Want everything explained? Out of luck! But if you read Phillip K. Dick, H.P. Lovecraft or William Hope Hodgson, you will be pleased with this highly literate movie. I am looking forward to more from the director.

Not even worth renting

[thecaptainisin8477 · 3/10 · 17 August 2004]

OK. This movie started out to be okay at first. You got a guy that has been "supposedly" in a coma for the past four years after he killed his fiancé during some weird ritual. He wakes up in a mental hospital with no recollection of what happened let alone where he his or what he did. SPOILERS AHEAD!!!!!!!!! Dr. Ek (very weird guy and mediocre acting skills) explains to him what he did and then sends him to this house called the House of Love. Here he meets all kinds of strange characters. He starts having nightmares after his first night about going into the attic of this place and finding a locked trunk, but someone is inside. He opens it and they pull him in. Well eventually, he finds out that this is really his old house where he and his fiancé used to live before he killed her. He keeps having the nightmares (thus explaining the name of the movie) and one by one his "Friends" at the house get murdered. MORE SPOILERS SPOILERS CONTINUED!!!! It turns out that all his fellow mental patients are really actors just trying to get him to relive or redo his ritual so Dr.EK can get the special book that he used so he can be the all-powerful doctor EK!! END OF SPOILERS!!!!!!!! Basically this film repeats itself throughout the movie and generally ends up being very stupid and confusing. SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER!!!!!!! Wanna know the big twist in this one, he was really asleep the whole time!!!!! Not even worth renting.

Confusing nonsense.

[poolandrews · 3/10 · 8 January 2006]

The Attic Expeditions starts with the revelation that Trevor Blackburn (Andras Jones) has murdered his fiancé Faith (Beth Bates). After a medical procedure went awry Trevor has been in a coma for the past four years in a sanatorium for the criminally insane run by the sinister Dr. Ek (Jeffrey Combs). Trevor regains consciousness & claims to remember nothing about Faith's death, Ek decides to try a little experiment out on Trevor & places him in the 'House of Love' run by Dr. Thalama (Wendy Robie), a sort of normal house environment for the insane to readjust to normal life or something like that. The other patients are the attractive Amy (Shannon Hart Cleary), Liz (Nancy Wolf), Doug (Seth Green) & Ronald (Jerry Hauck). At first things seem good but the very first night Trevor has a dream about going into the attic & finding a spooky old chest. The next day Trevor has an interesting & somewhat revealing conversation with Ronald who is murdered shortly after, Trevor has more dreams about Faith, operations & books about Black magic as he becomes more & more paranoid over who he can trust & just what the hell is going on...

Directed by Jeremy Kasten this is one weird film, personally I really disliked it. The problem I have with The Attic Expeditions is the script by Rogan Russell Marshall which is an absolute incomprehensible mess. Nothing is this film is given any sort of closure, was it all a dream? A hallucination? Was it reality? Was half of it reality & half of it fantasy? I mean just what the hell was this film all about? Whats with the staircase hidden in a chest? Why does someone suddenly turn into a psycho killer? What with the book with blank pages? Whats with Dr. Ek? There are people who will like this sort of muddled plot & try to come up with lots of possibilities & theories which is fine I suppose but I like my films to have closure & come together rather than just end up all over the place. I can't stress enough just how much of a mess the narrative actually is, this film is all over the place & incredibly confusing. It likes to introduce twist & turn after twist & turn which in the end ties itself up in knots. I still don't have much of a clue about what happened & I'm not going to waste anymore of my life trying to figure it out. On a positive note at least it's original & tries to be different.

Director Kasten must take a huge slice of the blame, the various plot threads just don't go anywhere & I'm at a loss to understand why he didn't try to tie the dreams, hallucinations & the reality together so it actually makes some kind of sense. What makes thing even worse is that there are some good ideas & I always felt there was a good film trying to break free of the muddled narrative. The gore is tame, a few splashes of blood & a (dream? reality? hallucination?) scene of Trevor with the top of his head sliced off & his brain exposed. There is some nice nudity too.

With a relatively low budget of $1,000,000 The Attic Expeditions is a surprisingly well made film with really good cinematography, decent special effects, nice production values & it's well made. The acting is pretty good expect for Andras Jones the lead who was flat & bland. Horror genre favourite Jeffrey Combs deserves better than this.

The Attic Expeditions is a mess of a film, I simply can't look at it any other way. I'm sure there are people who will like this & this is my own personal opinion but I really couldn't recommend this film to anyone, very disappointing.

Not interesting enough to solve- if there is a solution.

[TdSmth5 · 3/10 · 21 July 2013]

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.

A chaotic puzzle that's fun to watch

[bodyshots80 · 7/10 · 13 January 2003]

This movie didn't make a lot of sense but if you pay attention you'll understand the ending. Most people cannot do this because they are to slow to keep up with the Bachelor and Survivor reality shows. I'm sick of reading people comment and rave about sorry movies like Spiderman and rip independent horror movies like this. There are a few twists so if you get lost while watching Weakest Link avoid this. To me it doesn't get better than this. I like independent movies and I like horror movies but any movie that has Jeffrey Combs, Seth Green and Alice Cooper is my kind of movie. Definitely rent this is if you are a fan of Jeffrey Combs.

Stupid AND boring!

[hershiser2 · 1/10 · 16 November 2002]

One of the worst I've seen... I'm trying to figure out which audience this was made for: a lot of nudity, a dumb story, bad acting, characters you don't care about, bad premise, bad direction, etc. I'm beginning to think they were trying to target people with low IQs, because they basically show you the beginning of the movie all over again at the end, SHOWING you what you didn't figure out... Stay away from it, it's trash.

Fun kinda sorta anthology

[BandSAboutMovies · 6/10 · 10 August 2021]

Released by Severin Films when they put out their horror anthology documentary Tales of the Uncanny, The Attic Expeditions was a revelation to me. It's a portmanteau I've never seen before and I was knocked out by its Asylum-influenced story of Trevor Blackburn, a man who may or may not have lost his mind.

The problems begin when he and his girlfriend Faith purchase a home together and find a chest in the attic. Inside, they discover a book of black magic that gives them great power through a series of rituals. As they work on learning how to gain more power, a ritual that combines their consciousnesses leads to her death.

Now in an asylum, Dr. Ek (Jeffrey Combs) and Dr. Coffee (Ted Raimi) hope to use the book of black magic to cure all mental illness, but Trevor can barely remember his past and has no idea where it is. Dr. Ek then sends Trevor to be rehabilitated at The House of Love, a recovery facility seemingly in the command of Dr. Thalama (Wendy Robie, The People Under the Stairs) that is really Trevor's old home. The goal is to make him find the book and use actors, their stories and fake murders to make him wake up and turn over the occult reference.

Dead people come back to life, drugs and surgery are used on our protagonist and all of these things make him go even deeper into fantasy until there are multiple versions of himself and Faith all working on finding the black book.

Originally intended to be the fourth film in the Witchcraft series, this film stands on its own, featuring really good performances - Seth Green is awesome in this - and the only downside is the alt rock soundtrack that was forced on the film by its producers. Sadly, this film - despite being picked up by Blockbuster - doesn't get the kind of publicity other lesser horror anthologies get.

This movie is made even better by the fact that Alice Cooper shows up.

Not good

[mdavidthomson · 2/10 · 6 April 2001]

Kasten is a first timer. It shows. He has no handle on how to pace a story nor how to create sympathy with characters. Things happen in this film for no reason other than to further the plot. Characters themselves never rise above the one dimensional and the acting is wooden. A brief 30 seconds of Alice Cooper is the only redeeming feature. Having seen an advance screening at a film festival the words 'Straight to video' spring to mind.

"A horror film for smart people"

[sethfan · 9/10 · 22 June 2002]

I just finished watching the DVD and can't wait to see it again! Jeremy Kasten does a great job for his first movie. He creates an atmospheric, unsettling, and at times just plain weird journey into subjective reality. The film has a certain insecure tension -- just when you think you're putting it together, Kasten throws in another piece of the puzzle and you have to re-think what you thought you knew. I enjoy films that don't spoon-feed me the answers, but rather allow me to draw my own conclusions. I also like the use of the unreliable narrator...the last 20 minutes is a roller-coaster ride! Jeffrey Combs is absolutely perfect as Doctor Ek, and Seth Green is hilarious yet unnerving as the mysterious Douglas. Seth always brings multiple levels to his characters, and I rate this as one of his best performances. Don't be put off by the fact that this movie may be referred to as "low budget" - in my opinion, that fact makes the production all that more sincere. The DVD will give those with a home theater system a good workout and add to the overall experience...and watch it after the sun goes down with all the lights out too!

Playing games with your mind

[unbrokenmetal · 6/10 · 2 March 2007]

This is a movie with many "1" and many "10" ratings which tells how uncompromising it is. It can easily be misunderstood, misinterpreted or over-analyzed. The story doesn't follow a straight line of Truth. It has branches towards possible alternatives which is extremely confusing, but deliberately so, since we are taking part in the experiences of a highly confused individual who is treated for insanity. Warning: this movie is playing games with your mind and may not fulfill your expectations in case you are looking for a typical madman horror flick. I'd personally recommend it nonetheless, as there are few unusual productions like this which manage to enter the commercial market, and there is an interesting cast featuring Jeffrey Combs and Ted Raimi as 2 doctors, Seth Green (who played Scott Evil in the 'Austin Powers' movies) and - heaven forbid - heavy metal legend Alice Cooper as a guest star.

One of the actors here HAD to have slept with the casting director

[MBunge · 5/10 · 29 July 2010]

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.