THE ATTIC EXPEDITIONS (2002)
Starring Jeffrey Combs and Andras Jones
"The Attic Expeditions" starts off with a bang. After experiencing satanic visions involving a gorgeous red-haired woman named "Faith," 20-somethinger Trevor (Jones) wakes up to find himself in an insane asylum. Psychiatrist Jeffrey Combs explains to the troubled dude that he was locked up by order of the court, after performing some criminal act. Trevor can't remember how he got here, but goes along with the doctor's recommendation that he be transferred to a halfway house known as "The House of Love," where he'll hopefully get his mind straight.
Who isn't a fan of "mind fuck" movies that keep you guessing who the characters really are? "Memento,"
"The Game," "The Matrix," Cronenberg's "Videodrome" and "Existenz" and Dante Tomaselli's "Desecration" were all very good mind-fuck films. But making this type of movie is an ambitious proposition -- one that often requires money and an excellent script that masterfully messes with the audience, confusing them while suspending their disbelief the whole time.
Unfortunately, "The Attic Expeditions" doesn't quite click. You get the sense the filmmakers don't even know what's going on. Director Kasten may have been biting off much more than he could chew with a very limited budget and a weak script. The film does feature some great dream imagery – include a brief run through an apocalyptic landscape, a satanic ritual or two, and a brain operation that goes terribly wrong – but it isn't enough to make up for a way too confusing story. If one other thing can be said for "The Attic Expeditions," it's that the producers assembled a good cast, including Seth Green (Dr. Evil's son in the "Austin Powers" movies) as one of the inmates and (most importantly) Jeffrey Combs as the evil doctor, who wants info about an occult book that Trevor has stored in his mind. Any film that casts Combs as a mad doctor immediately gets a point or two. Wendy Robie (Nadine from "Twin Peaks") also plays the head of the halfway house where Trevor stays.
The film never does a good job of explaining why Trevor doesn't just leave the halfway house where he's been sent. Once the action moves there, the film slows down to a snail's pace, and it becomes way, way too talky. But given the low budget, that's the direction the movie obviously had to go to fill time.
Not as bad as another Combs film that came out this year -- "Faust" -- but not a whole lot better, "The Attic Expeditions" is probably only worth watching if you're a huge fan of that actor or if you're into redheads. Beth Bates, as Trevor's redheaded dream lover Faith, is stunning and frequently gets naked. Alice Cooper also has a cameo as a mental patient.