Don't Go Into The Attic (DVD)

Author's product rating:   

Did you enjoy it?	Indifferent to it
Story	Good
Characters / Performances	Satisfactory
Special Effects	Weak
How does it compare to similar films?	Weak

Advantages:	Alright story .  Brian Blessed
Disadvantages:	Not a great film really

Recommend to potential buyers:

no

Full review

Don't Go Into the Attic is a 2007 English film, it also seems to be going under the name of Devi's Harvest on IMBd. It was directed by James Shanks and is the only film he has directed.

The film is set in Cornwall a young couple, Laura and Daniel, have just moved into an old cottage provided for them by Daniel's patron and life long friend Mary. Daniel is an artist and Mary has arranged for him to go on a trip to an exhibition with him, Laura his fiancée is obviously not too happy about being left out. This worsened by the fact that the house seems quite creepy. Drawers keep opening of their own accord and the local bar-lady has filled them in on an interesting local tale of the local priest and how he was said to be communion with a sea demon and is a dangerous man.

Their friend Mike comes over to stay with Laura. Laura becomes more paranoid. Mary keeps trying it on with Daniel and they find strange stuff in the attic.

This film wasn't too bad. I was satisfied with it and no more. My particular copy didn't seem to great when I put it in I couldn't get the menu to work. The menu was up but I couldn't get the film to play or move to scene selection or anything, eventually the film did start but that was just because it was sick of sitting about doing nothing (DVDs can be impatient that way). Then another problem with it was that it was a really crappy size on the screen. The side of the picture didn't go to the end of the screen, there was a black border all round it.

The story itself wasn't too bad. It wasn't awful scary although there were a few bits that made you jump. I liked the normality of it all. The couple with their problems scraping a living. The relationships between Daniel and Mary and the slight history between Laura and Mike. The whole sea demon thing pt me off a bit. It reminded me of Jonah from The Dandy years ago for some reason (The Dandy has gone to hell). I don't know why but every time they talked about this sea demon I thought of Jonah and the big green seaweed thing coming out of the water. Hwy not just satan, would have been alot better. They did have these scenes in the film of unrelated characters being attacked and this was alright but it didn't blend with the story and there was no coherence with it all. I did like the fact that the guy sitting in a boat at night was reading Jaws that was neat (and I mean that in the neat and tidy sense) Brian Blessed's character as the priest was an interesting facet and I think a lot more focus here would have been better.

The directing wasn't too bad. It was a low budget film and I think they didn't stretch their boundaries too far by going too outlandish. It was a mediocre directing job and nothing more. The way it was directed it reminded me a lot of Midsomer Murders. It was very much the same style of directing. He did tend to use a lot of wonky camera angles and to be honest I think he over done that. The scene at the beginning where the camera is flying over the landscape reminded me a lot of the Father Ted opening.
There was little use of special effects in this film but in one scene near the end they did have some pretty bad special effects and it did take away from the film a bit. One other thing that annoyed me was when they went into the pub first everyone stops and stares at them. This has been done too many times it's about time film-makers made decided to set it aside and never do it again.

The acting wasn't too bad, just so-so. Brian Blessed was great as the priest. I think he can justly be accused of over acting at times but as the insane priest I really liked and of course I like Blessed's voice. Brian Blessed is not incredibly well known but I just think of him as the king from The Blackadder. He seems to mainly do voice work now. I did think it was a bit too overly English. All nice English gardens, posh voiced Mary and Daniel. That was a bit off putting for me and also added to the Midsomer Murders kind of feel. The woman who played Mary was a bit annoying with her large flaring nostrils and when she smiled she was more gums than teeth.

I wouldn't really recommend this film to anyone. It's not a great film and it just scraped three stars with me. It's like Midsomer Murders with a slight supernatural twist.

One other thing that annoys me is that this DVD has a bullsh*t cover. That face with the pentagram doesn't appear in the film at all. The attic isn't really a major part of the film. One the back it speaks of a battle between good and evil which is also misleading

DVD extras

Although I can't really get the menu to work the only DVD extra is a trailer.

Certification
The film is a 15 due to bad language and sex scenes

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