The Attic
2022 · 9m
Directed by Jeremy Applebaum
Genres: drama, horror, thriller
Tones: contemplative, dark, tense
David and Karen are tasked with cleaning out Grandma's attic after her passing, and dark family secrets from the past come back to haunt them.
Picked by Zoe
The scouts
It's competent grief-horror, sure, but the premise is doing all the heavy lifting—family secrets in the attic is basically the genre's instruction manual at this point, and Applebaum doesn't seem interested in breaking it.
Solid genre work with clear lineage to the domestic-horror tradition; the formal construction of dread through mise-en-scène is assured, though it doesn't quite break new formal ground within its established grammar.
The spatial decision to make the attic itself become a character through deliberate camera placement and sound design—creaks layered under dialogue, the architecture closing in—is what transforms this from premise into something that *feels* claustrophobic rather than just described that way.