Review of Walk on Water (2004) by Elena E — 14 Apr 2005

I enjoy weird movies, the more involved and unpredictable the better. Tarkovsky, no problem. Lynch, bring it on. Rivette, Godard, Waters, I'll take it all.

But the other night I saw a film that baffled me. I wasn't sure if it was intelligent or a cockeyed mess. It was something called "The Attic Expeditions", a horror movie about a man who murders his fiancee during some kind of Satanic ritual and wakes up four years later in a hospital. He is sent to a sort of halfway house for crazy people where he meets other strange folks and bizarre, bloody stuff starts to occur, some of it involving a trunk in the attic that has a flight of stairs inside it.

You're never quite sure what's real and imaginary in this movie. The protagonist is being constantly observed by the director of the hospital but he seems to be watching the guy in the house at the same time we see him on an operating table with electrodes attached to his exposed brain. I haven't even mentioned the dungeon inside the trunk or the reappearance of the dead girlfriend. There are a couple of my favorite actors making this at least humorous, Seth Green and Jeffrey Combs, but what the hell is going on? Damned if I know.

Haven't seen much since I've been staying away from the video stores but I was really moved by "Hilary And Jackie". I know this movie was an also-ran in the year end prestige sweepstakes when it was first released but it deserved better, and Emily Watson should have gotten a bunch of Best Actress Oscar votes for her work. This one inspires me to go out and look for some of Jacqueline Du Pre's CDs, like I needed another reason to buy music.

I will be grabbing something at Potomac Video tomorrow. I may look for a movie called "Lawn Dogs" that I hear is good. (Actually I'll be looking for it because I read that Angie Harmon has a nude scene in it.).