13 pasos al terror

Louise is a poor lonely middle-aged librarian prone to odd behavior, outrageous daydreams and suicide attempts. For the last 19 years she has taking care of her abusive wheelchair bound father and hopes beyond hope that her fiancée, who seemingly stood her up at the altar, returns to take her away. I thought that the story was interesting and in many ways parallels Psycho, there's even a nod in the movie. The acting is passable and the leads seem to mesh well. The direction is a bit plain and simple with little or no pizzazz. The biggest drawback is the music. Half the time the music distracts you away from the scene and the rest of the time it lulls you to sleep. Dig that crazy chimp music. The editing draws many of the scenes out for far too long. I kept thinking to myself that the story interested me but the script needed to be fleshed out some more and a bit of the fat trimmed coupled with a decent music score and a little vision, they could have pulled off something interesting.I even liked the obvious twists. Remake anyone?

This film is a slow burn at times, but offers a very in depth character study and the effect of mental criticism, manipulation of overbearing parent. Your introduced to Louise a middle aged librarian whose life is less than ideal and was stood up at the alter 19 yrs ago. You really do sympathize with her fragile mental state and her delusion that her fiancee will return to her. Louise is played by Carrie Snoggren and we'll played too, Wendell her awful excuse of a father is played by Ray Milland. For about 40 minutes it's a slow burn, until the intro of the monkey. The ending though quite sad builds to an exciting climax as to what's really in the attic. Not a repeat watch but deserving of a viewing once or twice. 3/5.

Okay, the storyline here is pretty interesting. Louise is a lonley librarian who is developing a drinking habit which is about to get her fired. But if anyone has GOOD reason to be sneakin hooch its Louise. 19 years ago she was left at the altar by her true love who she's never heard from since (she calls Missing Persons on a regular basis and they are at a point where they dont think this man EVER existed anywhere but in Louise's mind!). She lives with her evil nasty belittling father who is in a wheelchair due to an accident he had trying to escape a building Louise set on fire during one of her "Crazys" episodes. Since then Louise has had to bathe him, feed him and wait on him hand and foot.As you can imagine its a real downer and Louise has even known to slit a wrist or two over it (which her father points out is just to get attention!) Louise makes freinds with a new younger girl at the library and they start a friendship that at least brings Louise a little bit of joy. Her father cant stand it. "Where were you?" he likes to yell when she comes home at night. (He listens to phone calls too.) From the point were Louise is gifted a monkey....yes, a monkey!.....the twists start hitting. Are they fast and furious? No, the movie moves slowly ...which is unfortunate because all-in-all it IS an interesting story with some cool plot twists. I really think this movie needs a re-make with quicker pacing and maybe a few more surprises thrown in. The first time I saw this movie I was a little kid who caught the last 20 minutes on TV and thought "Wow! What a mind-f***!". Renting it and watching it in full I now see that most of the action takes place in those last 20 minutes.

Plot is a little slow Storyline varies too much, too many scenes that have nothing to do with the actual story. Some of the acting is not that great, but this is a 70's movie so it's about par for the course. Not too bad of a movie overall...

Depression surrounds poor Louise as she battles taking care of her abusive father who holds some sinister secrets in The Attic.

Louise is a very sad and lonely person who was stood up at the altar by the love of her love. almost 20 years ago, something she has not been able to get past. In the midst of her depression involving that, she is also being forced into retirement at the library she works in and is being replaced by a "younger model". On top of ALL of this, she has to take care of her tyrannical wheelchair-bound father who verbally abuses her at every turn. He attacks her appearance, the way she speaks, the job she has, etc.

Throughout the film, we see Louise fantasizing of killing her father in different ways. She also starts obsessing over the young person replacing her at the library named Emily. Emily has it all. Youth, a new position at the library, and a fiancee she is madly in love with. When a younger guy shows interest in Louise, things start to take a positive turn for her and her passive ways. But it isn't long before her father makes things worse for her and reveals some dark secrets of his own. All this leads to Louise breaking down further and a satisfying ending.

The compelling thing about this movie is the character of Louise. It is her mental health and overwhelming sadness that drew my attention throughout and kept me interested to see where it was going. I think we can all relate to a time when things weren't going well for us in our lives, and her general depressed mood definitely made me feel for her. Carrie Snodgress delivers a very emotional and powerful performance as Louise, the lonely and timid librarian who seems to have a dark cloud constantly hanging over her head.

The Attic is a very effective horror film. Extremely slow moving at times, but I never lost interest in following Louise's journey. It's only available on VHS at this point making it virtually impossible to find, but if you get the chance it is a recommended watch for sure!

7/10