The Attic (1980 film)

Plot

Louise (Carrie Snodgress), a librarian, devotes her life to caring for her controlling, wheelchair-ridden father, Wendel (Ray Milland) after her fiancé disappears the night before their wedding. She fantasizes about her father's death, and only finds joy with Emily (Ruth Cox)–a fellow librarian who is being trained as Louise's replacement (Louise is being fired for attempting to burn down the library)–and a pet monkey (who Louise names Dickie) that Emily buys for Louise. While wheeling her father up a hill at a local park one Sunday afternoon, Wendel's wheelchair tips over, and he falls out. Wendel reflexively picks himself up and it is revealed he was never disabled to begin with, and he lied to Louise all this time in order to enslave her to him. In a fit of rage, Louise pushes Wendel down the hill and he is killed when his head hits a rock. Louise then runs home to gather her few belongings, and some of her father's money hoping to run away. While searching her father's belongings, she comes across a key to the attic, which has long been boarded up. She enters the attic that night and discovers that Dickie and her fiancé, Robert, have both been killed by her father and placed in the attic.

Cast

Reception

Critical reception for The Attic has been mixed. TV Guide awarded the film 2 / 4 stars calling it "A fair psychological thriller".

Release

The film was released on DVD by MGM on August 27, 2002 as a double feature with Crawlspace.