Horror Movie Review: Secrets in the Walls (2010)

Directed by Christopher Leitch, starring Jeri Ryan and utilising every bland paranormal horror trope possible, Secrets in the Walls is the horror equivalent of a Lifetime/Hallmark rom-com.

The story sees a mother, Rachel and her two young daughters, Molly and Lizzie, move into an old house that they managed to get on the cheap. Cheap because it has a past and some secrets in the walls. It doesn’t take long for the ghostly-goings-on to get started, as the younger of the two children, Molly, starts to see the spirit of a young woman in and around the house.

Of course, no-one believes her but eventually the odd occurrences in the house and the changing behaviours of her children causes Rachel to investigate the house’s history. She discovers that one of the previous owners had a young wife who went missing and was never found. With the help of her brother, Rachel finds the missing woman’s body hidden behind a wall in the basement.

Having freed her body from her prison, the belief is that her spirit will depart the house but things are just getting started for this family.

Hilariously predictable, laughably run of the mill and about as scary as watching paint dry in the dark. Secrets in the Walls is a terrible movie because of how little it tries. At first, the total lack of originality is kind of funny but as the movie goes on, and every single beat and trope is as familiar as the last, the laughs stop. Then it just becomes frustrating.

Single mother with enough money to buy a house? Sure. Disbelieving adults? Of course. Child with possible psychic abilities? Yep. A medium who underestimates the ghostly-goings-on? Check. Finding out everything about your house from an old newspaper? Of freaking course.

How about the scares? What bloody scares!? What is scary about a music box? Or a door slamming shut? Subtly is dropped so early on with the ‘ghost girl’ shown front and centre. After that, there’s no recovering and the final third’s direction shift makes it so much worse.

None of this is helped by some really iffy acting. Although, it’s fair to say that not many actors could have made the dialogue in this movie sound decent. Secrets in the Wall is a terrible movie.