Secrets in the Walls 2010 Beyond Cringy, Boring TV movie 3/10 ⭐

 

Secrets in the Walls (2010) 

Beyond Cringy, Boring TV movie

3 out of 10 stars ⭐ Time to read: 3:30 min

BASIC PLOT:

After a recent divorce, Rachel Easton is settling into her new life as a single mother to her two teenage daughters, Lizzie and Molly. She is relieved to be near her brother Marty, who lives in town with his wife Erin. But even with family nearby, she still is facing her new normal through a constant lens of stress and anxiety. Rachel's rejoining the workforce after a long 8 year absence, and is worried about the obstacles ahead. 

Jeri Ryan as Rachel Easton

Rachel gets off to a rocky start at her new job, when she's nearly two hours late on her first day. She's supposed to be the new medical transcriptionist, at Ferndale Wellness Center, but after being two hours late, she's not sure she still has a job. But thanks to Dr. Levy, her forgiving new boss, Rachel begins to settle in transcribing their five year backlog of patient records. It's during this daunting task that she meets her first co-worker, Belle Morgan, the warm and caring head nurse. They instantly hit it off, and become fast friends. Rachel often witnesses Belle talking to patients about the afterlife, a quirk Rachel dismisses as just an endearing part of Belle's personality… at least for now.

Marianne Jean-Baptiste as Belle Morgan 

Rachel's new job is two hours travel by bus from her current downtown apartment. She is not looking forward to the long daily commute, but one day after work, fortune shines on her. While looking for the bus stop, she runs into Stella Morgeauno. Stella's a relator who's just been stood up by a perspective client, and asks Rachel if she'd like to take the house tour instead. The property is just two blocks from Rachel's new job, a fortuitous coincidence. Rachel takes the tour, and is immediately smitten with the house, but questions if it's in her price range. Stella assures her price won't be a problem, and before Rachel has time to think about it, she's the proud owner of a beautiful Dutch Revival built in 1910.

Sarab Kamoo as Stella Morgeauno

Rachel, Lizzie and Molly are settling into their beautiful, spacious historic home, and everyone seems happy about it, but Molly senses something is off about the property. She is occasionally seeing a girl in their house, who seems to be reaching out. Molly has always had "the shine" or "the gift", and can tell when the phone is going to ring, who's calling, and even seems to have foreknowledge of future events. She is sensing a troubled soul in their new home, but no one wants to believe her. All that changes late one night, when Molly senses something is wrong with Lizzie. She tells her mother, "Something's wrong," seconds before they hear Lizzie screaming from the basement. Rachel finds a bloody and hysterical Lizzie trapped in her room, unable to free herself from an unlocked closet. She's rushed to the hospital, where Doctors dismiss the incident as a night terror. This strange event finally convinces Rachel something is going on in the house, and must be dealt with. 

Marty finds Greta in the wall

Soon after, while the girls are away, Rachel recruits her brother Marty to take down a mysterious wall in Lizzie's room. Behind it, they find a skeleton. The police tell her they'll look into it, but Rachel already has, and thinks it's a young woman who went missing in the '50's, a teenaged bride named Greta Friedrich.

Once the skeleton is removed, the energy of the house shifts. What was random and strange is now omnipresent and evil. The ghost seems to be targeting Lizzie, maybe because they are close in age and appearance. Lizzie's behavior completely changes, and Rachel is convinced what lives inside Lizzie is not her daughter. Before she realizes what is happening, Rachel is in a fight to save her daughter's life. What does this spirit want? And can Rachel's love for her daughter be enough to save her?

WHAT WORKS:

*THE LOCATION IS BEAUTIFUL They try very hard to make this movie an atmospheric, but the house can only do so much to save such a flawed, and hackneyed script.

WHAT DOESN'T WORK:

*MOLLY EASTON IS PSYCHIC, EVERYONE ACCEPTS IT, BUT NO ONE BELIEVES HER  This makes no sense in any kind of real world scenario. Rachel accepts her daughter's gifts; Molly knows when the phone is going to ring, and she even paints a picture of their new home before anyone sees it. Molly's precognition is regarded as commonplace. They even joke about putting her in the circus, because of her accuracy. But they refuse to believe her when she says something is wrong with the house, why?!

Peyton List as Molly Easton

*BELLE AND RACHEL BECOME FRIENDS TO FAST  I was confused by the closeness of their relationship, and thought they must have known each other before Rachel began working at Ferndale. But no, they didn't know each other previously, so why is Rachel so close to what amounts to a total stranger?

Rachel & Belle

*AFFORDING THIS HOUSE ON A TRANSCRIPTIONIST'S  SALARY IS RIDICULOUS ! This is a beautiful, historic home with grand staircase, and a conservatory. Are we to believe she could afford this mansion? Are they independently wealthy? Then why is she working?

No medical transcriptionist could afford this house

*NO JUNIOR IN HIGH SCHOOL IS GOING TO BE OK WITH CHANGING SCHOOLS Lizzie says as much, but then she sees the house, and I guess changes her mind. If we are supposed to believe the ghost influenced her in some way, then we should see that. Otherwise, no popular junior is going to be ok with changing schools. 

Kay Panabaker as Lizzie Easton

*MARTY BUYS RACHEL A USED CAR, WHY? This is ridiculous! Rachel can afford a grand mansion, but she has to have her brother Marty buy her a used car. Um, what?

 

*THE SONG THAT'S PLAYED WHEN THEY TEAR DOWN THE WALLS, ACTUALLY HAS CHEESY LYRICS, "TEAR DOWN THE WALLS!"  It's so cringy, I had to mute it. It's that bad (other reviewers mentioned it too). Also, when they are tearing down this ancient wall, no one is wearing masks, and none of the furniture is covered. A minor point, but it adds to the unbelievability of the whole situation. 

*YOU CAN'T HAVE THE GHOST BE SYMPATHETIC FOR THE FIRST HALF of the movie, and then switch to a terrorizing, malicious harpy for the second half. It just doesn't work! Even her face is sympathetic in the first half, and she's supposed to be the victim of domestic violence, and domestic murder, but we're supposed to hate her? What?!

Jordan Trovillion as Greta Friedrich

*WHY DO THE SISTERS, WHO ARE IN JUNIOR HIGH AND HIGH SCHOOL RESPECTIVELY, GO TO THE SAME SCHOOL?  This doesn't make any kind of real world sense either, unless they are in private school, in which case they wouldn't have had to change schools at all. Make up your mind, William Penick & Christopher Sey (writers).

Rachel & Lizzie having one of their many talks (too many)

*LIZZIE IS NAMED AFTER A CHARACTER IN PRIDE AND PREJUDICE, It's a saccharine storyline that's as stupid as it is banal. "Convince me your my daughter, why did I name you Lizzie?" Barf!

*RACHEL IS A RUDE B*TCH TO THE REALTOR, STELLA MORGEAUNO, FOR NO REASON! After thinking something is amiss in her home, Rachel tracks down her original realtor, Stella, and confronts her while she's trying to sell another house (in front of the perspective buyers). She's rude, and ugly, and it makes Rachel's character very unlikable. (Stella did NOT know the house was haunted, making Rachel's tirade seem malicious and unhinged). After this incident, Rachel uses Stella to sell her house. I don't think Stella would agree after Rachel's behavior, and since Rachel seems angry at Stella, it doesn't make sense she'd use Stella as her relator. 

*THIS MOVIE OFTEN MADE ME THINK OF THE RING but not in a good way. More like, let's try to force some plot points from The Ring, into our movie, even though they don't make sense in our movie at all (sympathetic girl with long black hair, starts out sympathetic, then turns out to be bad, is constantly wet, even though she was buried in a wall-NOT a well, etc)

*BELLE IS THE HEAD NURSE AT FERNDALE  but her name tag says Environmental Services, which is part of the janitorial staff. WTH?! (After some checking, Dr. Abraham Levy, Rachel's boss, and the head doctor at Ferndale, also has a name tag that says "Environmental Services". That's a bad choice by the prop master, since the name tags are clearly visible.)

*THIS IS ANOTHER MOVIE WRITTEN BY MEN THAT DON'T KNOW OR UNDERSTAND WOMEN 

There are male writers that do not understand, and cannot write women and William Penick and Christopher Sey (the writers of this film) are prime examples. (There are also examples of women writers having the same problems, I don't think this is a gender specific problem. If I can tell it's a man (or woman) who wrote the script without looking, the outcome is never going to be stellar.) I also think writing choices, about child rearing, is lost on some men because unfortunately, they aren't responsible for the day to day raising of their children (like these two writers not realizing the girls wouldn't go to the same school if one of them is in junior high, and the other high school. That type of info comes from hands on experience).  These missteps are a result of generalizations, formed in one's head, because you never bothered or cared enough to see the opposite sex clearly. I understand this is a melodrama, and melodrama's rely on stereotypes, but if your target audience is women, shouldn't you choose positive female stereotypes for your screenplay (ex: hard working, but proud single mother, who rejoices in her daughter's successes? Instead, they chose clinging, selfish, overprotective mother, who has no identity of her own, and lives vicariously through one child, and ignores the other, why?) 

Please feel free to argue with me in the comments, I'd love to hear other's perspectives, or even why you think I'm wrong (or right).

TO RECOMMEND OR NOT TO RECOMMEND, THAT IS THE QUESTION:

I love Lifetime made-for-TV movies. I even like some of the bad ones, simply because I love melodramas. But even with all that said, I cannot recommend this movie. It is cringy in so many ways. The dialog between Rachel and Belle goes on and on, and doesn't fit for their relationship (and is boring to listen to). To be honest, the only actress that is decent here is Marianne Jean-Baptiste as Belle Morgan, but her character is so poorly drawn, she can't save this very flawed, and ridiculous movie. 

Jeri Ryan's character, Rachel Easton, is all over the place, but she comes off looking selfish (and therefore unlikable, a cardinal sin in a melodrama) on several occasions. She's rude to Belle, and to her brother and his wife. She goes absolutely mental on the unsuspecting realtor, and she's more concerned with what she's going to do without her daughter Lizzie, when she goes off to college, than excited for Lizzie's new stage in life. She treats her other daughter Molly as an afterthought, and rarely cares about her as much as she does Lizzie. She's even hateful to the guy that's trying to buy her house (again for no reason!). A weak, and unlikable main character, is NOT a good foundation for a movie. A boring, schizophrenic ghost for your main antagonist is even worse. If you're looking for a GOOD Lifetime paranormal fun fest, Try Deadly Pledge aka The Haunting of Sorority Row or Devil's Diary.

CLOSING NOTES:

*THIS IS A MADE-FOR-TV MOVIE, please keep that in e you watch/rate it. TV movies have a much lower budget, and so you expectations should be adjusted.

*I HAVE NO CONNECTION TO THE FILM, or production in ANY way. I'm not writing this as a favor, or because I was paid.

*CERTIFIED HUMAN WRITTEN REVIEW This review was NOT written in full, or in part, by a bot. I am just an honest viewer, who wishes for more straight forward reviews (less trolls and fanboys), and better entertainment. Hope I helped you out. 

*VISIT MY LIFETIME MOVIE'S WIKI and visit this movie's page here