By Robert Scucci
| Published
If you’ve watched your fair share of psychological thrillers from the late ’90s and early aughts, you’re fully aware of how mixed-bag some of these films are. For every Arlington Road (1999), there’s a Domestic Disturbance (2001). For every banger like The Jacket (2005), there’s an equally abysmal film like The Glass House (2001). It’s just the nature of the game. Sitting somewhere in the middle is 2001’s The Attic Expeditions, which suffers from its soap opera production values but should be celebrated for its surprisingly cerebral delivery.
It’s billed as a horror film, but it’s a bona fide psychological thriller if I’ve ever seen one. Its setting is sparse, and its characters are either paranoid or give you a reason to be. You’ll never be quite sure what’s real, and you’ll want to avoid the Wikipedia page for this one ahead of watching. The article breaks down the entire movie in chronological order, and this is very much a non-linear experience that you should go into without knowing the full scope of its conflict.
That said, the acting and pacing are pretty rough at points, but there are some genuinely great visual treats toward the third act that are impressive when you consider that the film’s estimated production budget was only about $1 million.
This House Looks Strangely Familiar
The Attic Expeditions tells an increasingly disorienting story about its protagonist, Trevor Blackburn (Andras Jones), who wakes up after a four-year coma under the care of the elusive Dr. Ek (Jeffrey Combs). He’s told that he got into black magic after discovering a strange book in his attic that only he could read, and when the dark forces fully took hold, he murdered his girlfriend, Faith (Beth Bates), resulting in his incarceration. Dr. Ek tells him that instead of going to prison, he was assigned to his care at a mental health facility. What Dr. Ek doesn’t tell him is that he’s looking for the book because he wants to use it for his own nefarious purposes.
Suffering from amnesia and having pretty much no memory of how he got there, Trevor has little choice but to take Dr. Ek at his word. He fully trusts him when he’s sent to “The House of Love” to continue his rehabilitation. The House of Love is a boarding house full of all sorts of eccentrics, like Douglas (Seth Green), who encourages Trevor to snoop around when nobody’s looking so they can uncover whatever dark secrets the orderlies are hiding from their subjects.
Trevor, with nothing better to do and barely any recollection of his life before the coma, does just that. But every time he does, somebody dies a brutal death, implicating him in even more violent crimes. Maintaining his innocence the entire time, he’s subjected to mind games from the other residents, all of whom seem slightly off, which only complicates matters. These people are supposed to be “off,” so at face value Trevor isn’t really seeing anything out of the ordinary.
When we catch glimpses of the more level-headed Dr. Coffee (Ted Raimi), though, we learn just how messed up the situation is. It certainly seems like Dr. Ek is conducting an experiment on Trevor with parameters that even his closest colleagues aren’t fully informed about.
As the body count rises in lockstep with Trevor’s paranoia, we bear witness to the insanity unfolding at The House of Love. It’s a manipulation game of the highest order, and as Trevor experiences flashbacks that clue him into what happened before Faith’s demise, the waters only get muddier before we finally receive clarity in the form of a third-act reveal that comes completely out of left field.
Soap Opera Production Values, But Surprisingly Solid For This Era
Nearly every psychological thriller I’ve reviewed from this era for this site is terrible. There are exceptions, of course, but even Domestic Disturbance, which had a $75 million budget, plays like a Lifetime special rather than a legit feature-length film that actually saw a theatrical release. I’d argue that The Attic Expeditions has similar production values for one seventy-fifth of the cost, and its storytelling is inherently more compelling.
The Attic Expeditions never lets you know who you can trust, if you can trust anybody at all. Films like Domestic Disturbance and The Glass House lay all their cards on the table in the first act, and you’re just supposed to sit there, bored, waiting for them to end. Despite its budgetary limitations, The Attic Expeditions has enough twists and turns to keep even the most cynical thriller fans wondering how it’s going to pay off.
And even if you’re able to suss it out early on, its dream-like aesthetic still urges you forward because it actively tries to subvert the very tropes it’s simultaneously celebrating.
THE ATTIC EXPEDITIONS SCORE
As of this writing, you can stream The Attic Expeditions for free on Tubi.
