Review by Chris Rennirt
Within the walls of the mind are hopefully buried the worst of our experiences, our guilt, and our fears. Hopefully, they will remain forever hidden, especially during consciousness, in waking hours. If we are lucky, they will also remain hidden in our dreams–or nightmares as they may more likely be. If we are unlucky (or subconsciously curious), we may experience terrors greater than we are capable of bearing, terrors that drive us to the edge of sanity and beyond our means of coping. If we are more unlucky (or perhaps more curious), tangible manifestations of the intangible may even haunt us in the real world. Within These Walls (2017), staring Kelsey Zukowski, written and produced by Kelsey Zukowski and James Tucker is a movie that takes us on a journey into one girl’s horrific encounters with the worst of what lies within herself and the walls of the place she calls home.
What’s it all about? Alaina Olsen (Kelsey Zukowski) returns from college to stay at her family’s home, with her father (Marv Blauvelt)–although dad is unable to stay himself, due to traumatic memories of events that occurred there. Alaina, guilt-ridden for not being there for her mother (Laura Mortensen) during a mental breakdown and resulting death, is a young woman vulnerable, by nature and perhaps heredity, to the vengeful horror that awaits. Unanswered questions and mysteries to be solved lead Alaina to discoveries and evil she could never have imagined.
Kelsey Zukowski (as Alaina) in Within These Walls (Is it a dream, or is it reality?)
Within These Walls wastes no time getting into the movie’s grittier, violent moments, also adding immediate mystery to the mix; within seconds, before anything else, we see a flashback involving Alaina’s mother and father, which occurred while Alaina was still at college. Flashbacks and flash forwards are established in the movie’s beginning, recurring throughout, in a way that is, as a feat to commend, coherent rather than confusing. These flashes forward and backward are interesting and effective points of view the directors and writers take. Dreamscapes weave in and out of the movie’s settings, using objective and first-person perspectives interchangeably, while keeping the real and the imagined distinguishable. Some confuse the two, either with sloppy editing or good intentions that don’t work, ultimately even cheating the audience. I always hate it when events that may or may not be dreams, with no way to identify them, become driving forces in the movie’s plot. Within these Walls keeps us interested and engaged, as participants solving a puzzle–a puzzle in which all pieces, although well hidden, are actually there to be found.
The ever-pensive Alaina (Kelsey Zukowski) looks for answers in Within These Walls
In movies of any genre, too much voice-over narration can be the movie’s death knell. Within These Walls has much more than the usual narration but, for me, it worked. Why? I saw the narration not as simply overt, tacked-on distractions, but as part of Alaina’s character and the way that the movie develops our understanding of who she is. Elaina, early on, is one who is more introspective and pensive, verbalizing her thoughts within, much like others would talk to themselves. Since Alaina is a writer, I can, myself identify with the idea of listening to my inner thoughts, as I think, at times as a cathartic, pre-writing event, done subconsciously. Actress Kelsey Zukowski, like the character Alaina, is also a writer; I can imagine (but not prove, of course) that Zukowski takes this approach to Elaina’s character to better and more uniquely define Elaina as a writer and a thinker, as such. Narration occurring while Alaina is in front of the computer, writing and/or doing research, puts it in an even more authentic, natural context. One way or another, it provides a more intimate look into the character and her thoughts; a look that would otherwise be difficult to include in the story.
It’s always scary to take a bath in a horror film!
One such telling narration, voiced by Alaina, reveals more about the movie’s poetic metaphors and symbolism: “I never thought of that before–a house being representative of a person, their emotions, memories, fears…and even their salvation. Every room holds a different part of you, no one ever stronger than the other. Whether it’s a fond memory tied to a room, haunting thoughts, or your passions being shown through an escape to another world.” In this sense, a house can be a safe place, a refuge from reality or perhaps, the place that brings traumas to life, making terrors well remembered. With this metaphor, the house becomes another of the movie’s characters, personified as a hero today, or a monster tomorrow. This is but one example of the movie’s deeper analogies intelligently communicated through narrated thoughts, otherwise possibly lost in literal translations and plot. As Alaina’s interpretations of the world around her, they further define her character.
“Sometimes, encountering a physical demon is easier. It’s less unknown, maybe even less painful.” ~ Alaina
Within These Walls does a particular thing I haven’t seen done as well in a long time. When it’s time to get the hell out, and get as far away as possible, Alaina heads for the door. In many such movies, characters stay in harms way, wherever it may be, far too long, when ways to escape are numerous. Here, the writers have created something that keeps Alaina from leaving that is plausible, at least in the realm of the supernatural, if not totally in the mind of Alaina. Here, at a point where many movies would have failed, becoming a stereotype of the genre, Within These Walls succeeds as anti-cliche. When the SHTF event occurs, and just when I yelled get the hell out, Alaina is, indeed, a character in search of an exit.
A curious Alaina (Kelsey Zukowski) checks out a noise in the night!
My favorite scene (and one I found most well executed visually) was one in which Elaina is on the steps of a staircase, as she is being, apparently, possessed by a demon in a most violent way. The special effects, involving time-lapse imagery, with some sections of the motion cut (or so it appears), creates a visually-compelling horror of possession and otherworldliness. Lapses of frame during Alaina’s convulsive attack make it all the more jerked and violent in appearance, and all the more demonic, as well.
Another standout scene involves a ghost hunter/paranormal investigator, Sage Hawthorne (Felissa Rose). Hawthorne is the type of overconfident know-it-all, driven by greed and self-importance who is asking for what she gets. As soon as she shows up at the door, her fate seems predictable. She’s one of those immediately annoying characters whose death we wind up wishing for. Yes! Since this is just a movie, it’s one of the few times in life that we can wish for someone’s death, without feeling bad about it. But, do our wishes come true here? Does Hawthorne become the deserving recipient of untimely demise? In any case, it is the performance of Felissa Rose who brings this car salesman of a demon slayer to life, as an entertaining, memorable character, in a part lasting less than five minutes.
Something Within These Walls looks…outside!
What about the gore and violence? Most memorable for me is a scene involving Zukowski, a tongue, and a pair of scissors. YEAH! Speaking of violence, a couple of rape scenes come to mind quickly; although graphic, they are, I think, necessary rather than gratuitous. One rape in particular, occurring in a shower, reminds me of the horror classic The Entity (1982), starring Barbara Hershey. While rape scenes are usually controversial, it is the context that determines their need in a film. In Within These Walls, rape defines the brutal, sexual, and even punishing nature of the entity, making it all the more terrifying, clearly beyond Alaina’s imagination. Zukowski makes the shower scene utterly visceral and realistic, perhaps making it even difficult to watch for some. And that, ironically, is a good thing. Anything less might have been exploitation and little more, mere sensationalism in its ineffectiveness. Not the case here!
Finally, while not giving away specifics, I loved the movie’s ending. It was cathartic and liberating literally and poetically. I also liked how the camera followed Alaina in the end, where she went in real time, to the point that simply walking became symbolic of something more than ordinary, something again more metaphorical.
Within These Walls is bold horror with complexity and layers of cleverly hidden metaphors and meaning, elevated by its courage to go, in many ways, where others fall short or fail. With demons, ghosts, insanity, and guilt that tortures the soul, the mind is as much a victim as the body. Dreams decaying to nightmares, physical manifestations of the intangible, and real-world horrors circling back create terrors that haunt inside and outside walls of any kind. As Alaina says, “The mind is a powerful vessel. It can completely alter our reality…if you give it the power.”
Chris Rennirt (the author of this review) is a movie critic and writer in Louisville, Kentucky, as well as editor in chief at Space Jockey Reviews. He has been a judge at many film festivals, including Macabre Faire Film Festival and Crimson Screen Film Fest, and he attends horror and sci-fi conventions often. Chris’ movie reviews, articles, and interviews are published regularly on Space Jockey Reviews and in Effective Magazine. His mission statement (describing his goals as a movie critic and philosophy for review writing) can be found on the “Mission” page, here at SJR. For more information about Chris Rennirt (including contact details, publicity photos, and more), click here.
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