Secrets in the Walls (2010 TV Movie)
8/10
Above-average Lifetime haunted house effort
19 November 2015
Taking a new job in the city, a newly divorced woman and her two teenage daughters move into a grand house and come to discover someone else is living there that has dangerous plans for the family and must save them before it go through.

As this was a typical Lifetime style haunted house film, there's some really enjoyable moments here. What really works here is the fact that this one really makes the ghostly action here that really has an impressive air here. The start here, with the ghost hands appearing from the broken wall after initially finding that secret room, is a good start and as it gets deeper here these get even better with the flicking lights and ballerina box playing constantly whenever someone enters the room start this off quite nicely. Along with the rather creepy way the ghost keeps appearing in short visual cuts of the daughter seeing her around the house and up in the attic, there's a really solid air here that makes the suspected situations come off quite well and giving this something to work with when it gets to the more pronounced ghostly actions. The big encounter here is the scene of her being trapped in the closet and prying it open which rips open her hands as she's released, as well as the later gag of the jewelry box as she walks into the room to watch her sleep, and along with the actual possession scene here where the ghost appears and presents the necklace that leads to the possession which takes place in full-view of the terrified victim for a rather nice amount of fun here. This one also manages to get some nice work her in the final half of the possessed girl around the house giving this a rather fine atmosphere here, which is all enough there to make up for the minor flaws within this. The biggest element against this one is that it all too readily betrays its origins, being filled with all the usual prerequisites for this type of film as there's long stretches of time without any horror angles and too many useless elements merely meant for women to be hooked into watching that have no bearing on the plot as a whole. That usually means that most of the scares here build- up to a drama about her skills as a mother rather than horror angles, and they do cause this some problems because of that. The other main problem here is the rushed finale, as the brawl comes off rather clunky and off-putting by being so stagy, and the events here make it seem even weaker as there's another big problem with the scene away from the ideas behind the scene. While there's some good parts that make for some decent times here and there, these few flaws do hold it back.

Rated Unrated/PG-13: Violence and Language.
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