Walled In (2009)

“It is essential for the victim to suffer.”

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Sometimes, you can find the most amazing things in a dollar store. That’s where I found this bargain-binned video called Walled In. It looked appropriate for October, with a creepy thriller vibe, a Saskatchewan production, and hopefully a play on Thoreau’s Walden.

No, not so much.

Oh sure, there were several things I appreciated about my 92 minutes spent watching it: a coffee which tasted like roast marshmallow, the sun on the autumn trees behind my home, and the fact I was able to get a load of laundry done simultaneously.

I also thought about feminist game critic, Anita Sarkeesian. For example, I wondered what she might say about this direct-to-video effort. Would she lament the use of a young woman’s suffering as exploitative? Come to think of it, make that plural; there were multiple victims.

Imagine an updated Psycho (1960) with Cameron Bright (X-Men: The Last Stand) as Norman Bates, Deborah Kara Unger (1996’s Crash) as his mother, and Mischa Barton (St Trinian’s) playing an amalgam of other roles.

As I’ve hinted in the past, I’m no fan of “torture porn”, though this movie demonstrates its definition need not mean only gore. This torture is psychological, which works better in theory than in practice here. I sat through it all with sinking hopes, diligently filling a page with notes, then put it aside, realizing there was no point in it.

Admittedly this production was (mostly) competently crafted but, by the time I was done, I wasn’t remotely entertained. I felt tired and a little bit depressed . . . without any hint of excitement from having been thrilled or, at the very least, titillated.

So, yes, sometimes a bargain bin can hold amazing things. Unfortunately this wasn’t such an occasion. In fact, Walled In wouldn’t have been worth the price even being paid that price for my time.

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Rated R

92 minutes