Wall of Secrets

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source: Wall of Secrets

WALL OF SECRETS (TV Movie 2003) BASIC PLOT: Mark & Paige Emerson are recently married, and have just relocated from Seattle to Chicago. They've moved into one of the venerable, imposing old stone structures Chicago is known for. The place is almost too good to be true, it's spacious, and luxuriant, but Paige ( Nicole Eggert ) is beginning to feel uncomfortable in their new home. She is having one strange experience after another. Paige is hearing inexplicable noises at night, and whispering coming from the walls. She decides to speak to Irene ( Mary Morter ), the eccentric old woman who lives next door. Irene thinks the apartment is cursed, and tells Paige, the last two residents died in an inscrutable fire. But before Paige can learn anymore, Irene is killed. To make matter's worse, a strange young woman is watching Paige. Paige later spots her arguing with Mark ( Dean McDermott ) outside his office. Is Mark having an affair, or does all this have something to do with Mark's enigmatic father, Hugh Emerson ( Stephen McHattie )? Does Hugh have something to do with the mysteries plaguing Paige? And who was the young woman arguing with Mark? Paige gave up her own law career to follow Mark to Chicago. She's only known him nine months, and she's beginning to think he has dangerous secrets Will she live long enough to find out what they are? WHAT WORKS: *The atmospheric setting of the building is creepy, and beautiful at the same time. This juxtaposition sets the mood, and adds to the suspense. *The pacing of this movie makes it more enjoyable to watch. Paige uncovers one enigma, which organically, leads to another. The mystery unfolds, and keeps you interested. WHAT DOESN'T WORK: * Nicole Eggert is no actress, she's a model. Her performance is probably the best she has to offer, but it is still uninspired. TO RECOMMEND, OR NOT TO RECOMMEND, THAT IS THE QUESTION: *As made-for-tv movies go, this is a step above the rest. It's not a supernatural thriller, as the description suggests, but it is a worthwhile mystery. CLOSING NOTES: *This is a Made-For-TV movie, please keep that in mind before you watch\rate it. TV movies have a much lower budget, and so your expectations should be adjusted. *I have no connection to the film, or production in ANY way. I am just an honest viewer, who wishes for more straight forward reviews. Hope I helped you out.

Newlyweds Mark (Dean McDermott) and Page (Nicole Eggert) get a good deal on a cursed apartment in Chicago. A mafia criminal was killed there recently. What starts out as a horror film turns into a made for TV drama/mystery/thriller complete with a lame soundtrack. As any good mystery, it has clues and twists, but in this case they are not put together well. Nicole Eggert did what she could with a bad script and boring dialogue. Currently available again as a filler in a 30 Horror Film Collection. Parental Guide: No f-bombs. Sex and nudity (Anne Bedian, Nicole Eggert-side breast)

***MAJOR SPOILERS*** Really off the wall made for TV flick appropriately named "Walls of Secret" that plods along for almost three quarters of its running time until we finally get an idea in just what the heck it's trying to tell us. There's this young and very attractive couple Mark & Paige Emerson, Dean McDermott & Nicole Eggert, who rent this spacious apartment in the uppity section of Chicago at dirt cheap prices. Right away you suspect that there's something very un-kosher in all this in that the two Mark & Paige are in no financial position with Mark just starting his job as an architect and Paige and out of work, who in fact never had a job before, lawyer to afford a place like that: Six rooms with a double bedroom & two baths plus a king size living room and a spectacular view of Chicago's skyline that would go from between 3 to 5 thousand dollars a month rent on the open market! It's much later in the movie after a few red herrings are thrown in to divert our attention that we soon realize what all this noise in the walls and bump in the night as well as number of murders or tragic accidents to the apartment houses tenants is really all about. It has nothing to do with the supernatural, the apartment house is at first thought to be haunted, but with good old police corruption, which makes far more sense, and murder involving Mark's dad ex-cop on the lamb Hugh Emerson, Stephen McHattie. It's Hugh who's suspected in murdering, by cutting his throat, his police partner a year ago! That's after he was going to report him to his superiors about the mob gambling racket that he was involved in. The fact that the audience has to sit through almost the entire boring movie until Hugh makes his grand appearance and spices things up puts most of it to sleep before the real action starts. ****SPOILERS**** Once Hugh comes on the scene things really get going in that he in fact was set up by his boss Captain Milton, Bruce Gary, to take the rap in an illegal gambling payoff scheme with the Chicago Syndicate that Milton and his fellow corrupt cops were operating. It was Milton's big mistake to try get Hugh to come out in the open in order to shut him up or murder him since was no threat to him and his operation anyway. Hugh was a fugitive from justice who only wanted some monthly cash from his son Mark to pay for his food and rent as well as bar tab and the occasional trips he took to the local casinos and racetracks and nothing else. It's when Milton and his fellow crooked cops that included Carrie & Diego, Sarah Allen & Conrad Pia, started to turns the screws on Hugh's son Mark and daughter in law Paige that it brought the fighting Irish out of him. And instead of playing it cool or safe and laying low Hugh came out into the open to settle things. And that he did with sudden and deadly results!

This movie was fun to watch and the main reason is the character played by NE.

Wall of Secrets - This wasn't a bad movie, but I would've liked to see them expand the female character a bit more; for example have her join a law firm as well as getting involved with the "mystery" involving the people in the apartment building. Or expand the male character by showing him at work a bit more. The director has left it up to the viewer's imagination too much. The male character left Seattle for a supposedly great job in Chicago, but we never saw him in an office setting or interacting with other work colleagues, except for the scene at the cocktail party. Also, I would've liked to see more of a background of the two characters, such as starting off the movie with both of them still in Seattle preparing for the move to Chicago, so the viewer would have more of an indication where the characters were coming from & where they were headed. I believe a scene from this movie was filmed at my son's school and I would like to know where I can get a copy of the movie. I have looked in some stores, but they don't have it. Was it just a made for TV movie or was it also put out on video/DVD? If I can purchase it I would like to know where/how? If it is strictly a made for TV movie, will it ever be on TV again?

The title "Wall of Secrets" sounds creepy, so I imagined it was either a supernatural film with ghosts, a horror film or even a mystery of hidden bodies or treasures. I even anticipated a spooky next door neighbour type of film, or a stalker film but it wasn't. This couple move into an apartment, and there are some iffy neighbours. I felt cheated really as I was hoping much more stuff. The film itself overall wasn't totally bad, although just too many settings for a haunted house/stalker/mystery type of film but it was none of that. It was about a cover-up and even that wasn't very good as it made no sense. The lead character played by Nicole Eggert didn't express any emotion after finding out her elderly neighbour was killed. She didn't come across as a lawyer at all. And there was no point in the soft * at the very beginning either.

On the surface, this movie is entertaining enough. It provides some suspense and a decent plot. However, if you're the type to piece together the information and try to understand the characters' actions, you may be disappointed. The tension is enough to keep you interested but not riveted. The story line could have been better developed to avoid the questions that the deeper thinker will find. The plot doesn't get too complicated e.g. faked deaths, etc. But there are enough lies to at least keep you watching to see if you're right about who's telling the truth. And you probably are. Overall, it works just fine for tame, quiet Friday night entertainment.

I'd give this one a "3*," one for each of the leads because they are at least active to look-at, and another because it's a bit fascinating in its mediocrity. I one read a Leonard Maltin review of a Patrick Swayze flick, in which he stated his acting, as usual, ranged "from 'A' to 'B'." I couldn't agree more regarding Patrick, and virtually all of the performances - particularly the two leads - in this movie fit this description/ The plot, with its supposed twists, foreshadows and eerie aspects, can be given a grade of "C-," and that's an exceedingly generous grade. (And the old-lady neighbor, who gives the "heroine" forewarnings about her new abode, looks as though she might be the last remnant from one of Vincent Price's classically-corny horror flicks several decades ago.) The flick also appears to have been written and directed by personnel who, if they attended some sort of film school, had grades at this level or below. Not much to recommend - even for "Lifetime."