A Canadian-made 2009 horror-thriller directed and co-written by Gilles Paquet-Brenner and starring Mischa Barton, Cameron Bright, and Deborah Kara Unger. It is based on the best-selling French novel Les Emmurés by Serge Brussolo.
The film begins with a little girl named Julie waking up to find herself in a small room that is sealed on all sides so she is trapped with no way out. The room starts to fill up with cement and the poor girl repeatedly screams for help, bangs on the walls and cries for her father to no avail as the cement rises higher and higher....
15 years later, Samantha (Sam) Walczak is offered the opportunity to become her father's business partner in demolition and as assigned to oversee the demolition of the Malestrazza building. What she doesn't realise is that there is a deep dark secret associated with the building....
This film provides examples of:
- Abhorrent Admirer: Jimmy to Sam, he redeems himself somewhat when he realises his mother plans to kill Sam after she kills Malestrazza.
- Abusive Parents: Mary to Jimmy if he goes anywhere near Sam. He rebelliously meets up with Sam and tries to help her while his mother's not looking.
- The Atoner: Malestrazza and to a certain degree, Jimmy.
- Attempted Rape: Jimmy tries to caress Sam's thigh while tending to her wounded legs.
- Axe-Crazy: Burnett.
- Bad People Abuse Animals: Jimmy abuses and eventually beheads his pet dog.
- Bloody Horror: Sam sees blood seeping out of her bathroom wall in a Nightmare Sequence.
- Break the Cutie: Poor Julie, she wakes up to find herself trapped inside a hollow column with no one hearing her cries for help then cement starts to pour in....
- Buried Alive:
- Young Julie suffers this fate in The Teaser. It's later revealed that 15 other people, including Mary's husband, were also murdered this way.
- Malestrazza is said to have had this happen to him.
- The Cameo: Tim Allen as a police officer.
- Catapult Nightmare: Sam has one about being buried alive in cement.
- Censored Child Death: We're spared from actually witnessing Julie's death by burial in cement but we do later get to see the hollowed out column where her body was found.
- Constructive Body Disposal:
- Malestrazza's preferred method of Human Sacrifice, combined with Drowning Pit.
- This is said to have been Malestrazza's fate and ends up becoming so after Sam kills him.
- Corner of Woe: Poor Julie backs into a corner as she's about to drown in cement.
- Covers Always Lie:
- A promotional poster for the film depicts Sam about to be buried alive in cement.
- Others depict arms coming out of a wall and pulling Sam in.
- These things only happen to Sam in a Nightmare Sequence.
- One poster depicts Sam partially immured in a cracked wall.
- Another depicts a statue (possibly meant to represent Sam) with head in hands and empty eyes and surrounded by darkness.
- Another depicts a wall with a great, gaping hole in it, implying it was smashed open.
- Crazy Jealous Guy: Jimmy to Sam to the point of imprisoning her and murdering her boyfriend Peter.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: Malestrazza's Human Sacrifice victims being imprisoned inside a hollow column that gets turned into a Drowning Pit when cement is poured into it.
- Daddy's Girl:
- Julie repeatedly screams for her father as she's about to drown in cement.
- Sam is implied to be this in addition to being her father's employee and soon-to-be business partner.
- Death of a Child:
- Young Julie is buried alive in cement in the opening scene.
- Jimmy sacrifices himself by throwing himself down the hole in the center of the building.
- Decapitation Presentation: Sam discovers the beheaded corpse of Jimmy's dog.
- Died Standing Up: The ultimate fate of Joseph Malestrazza's Human Sacrifice victims, though the columns in which they were imprisoned would have allowed them enough room to sit or crouch, only for them to naturally stand up with a start when they discovered the column was about to be filled with cement.
- Downer Beginning: The first thing we see in the movie is young Julie about to drown in cement.
- Drowning Pit: Malestrazza's method of Human Sacrifice in which the victim is imprisoned inside a hollow column and buried alive in cement.
- Enclosed Space:
- In the opening scene, young Julie wakes up to find herself trapped in one. Unfortunately for the poor girl, it happens to be a building column that is about to be filled with cement...
- Sam has a nightmare about the same thing happening to her.
- Mary has Joseph Malestrazza imprisoned in the basement. Sam ends up joining him when she falls into the basement.
- Faking the Dead: Malestrazza when Sam is imprisoned in the center of the building with him.
- The Ghost: Thomas Sullivan the ex-factory worker and initial suspect.
- Gory Discretion Shot: The screen fades to black when Julie is about to drown in cement.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Jimmy throws himself to his death from the roof to the basement in order to save Sam.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Malestrazza though he actually dies from Sam stabbing him before the cement falls on him.
- Human Sacrifice: Julie ends up as one and Malestrazza has done this to at least 15 other people, including Mary's husband, based on the belief that this method was used in the construction of the Great Pyramid of Giza.
- Innocent Bystander: Sam becomes this when Jimmy imprisons her thus allowing her to discover Malestrazza is still alive but has been made to suffer for several years as a result of Mary's Roaring Rampage of Revenge. This also puts Sam in danger when Mary tags on to her imprisonment and plots to blow up the building with her inside.
- It's Personal: Mary imprisoned Malestrazza for years for murdering her husband and daughter.
- I Want My Mommy!: Played with as poor Julie repeatedly screams for her father as she is about to drown in cement.
- Karmic Death: Malestrazza though he actually dies from Sam stabbing him before the cement falls on him.
- Kidnapped While Sleeping: It's implied that this is what happened to Julie since she is barefoot in her nightdress when she wakes up to find herself trapped in a sealed room that is about to be filled with cement.
- Kill the Cutie: Poor Julie and who's to say she wasn't Malestrazza's only child victim?
- Last of His Kind: The Malestrazza building is said to be the last one still standing.
- Averted, according to Sam's epilogue at the end of the movie.
- Mary ends up losing her entire family to Malestrazza and suicide.
- Mama Bear: Mary to Jimmy, after Malestrazza murdered her husband and daughter.
- Momma's Boy: Jimmy which is hardly surprising since his father and sister were murdered while his mother was pregnant with him.
- Mood Whiplash: The start of the movie consists of young Julie about to drown in cement, the title sequence with implications of further deaths by burial in cement then Sam celebrating her birthday in that order.
- My Beloved Smother: Jimmy has had to put up with this from Mary all his life, due to the murders of his father and sister.
- My God, What Have I Done?:
- Years of being imprisoned in the center of the building by Mary have driven Malestrazza to this.
- Jimmy when he finally realises what he and his mother are doing just for the sake of avenging his father and sister.
- Never Trust a Trailer: One trailer depicts Julie actually screaming, she doesn't scream quite like that in the actual movie.
- Nightmare Sequence: Sam has one about being walled in and buried alive in cement.
- Off with His Head!: Jimmy murders his dog by decapitation off-screen.
- Outliving One's Offspring: Mary when Malestrazza murdered her daughter Julie and her son Jimmy throws himself down the hole where Sam is imprisoned..
- Overprotective Mom: Mary to the point of becoming an Abusive Mom:
- The Peeping Tom: Sam and Peter discover a secret passage that has allowed Jimmy to spy on her. Jimmy continues to do this from behind the walls while they're making love.
- Posthumous Sibling: It is implied that young Julie is murdered before her younger brother Jimmy is even born.
- Redemption Equals Death: Malestrazza and Jimmy.
- Revenge: Mary has Malestrazza imprisoned in the center of the building in order to avenge the death of her husband and daughter.
- She Knows Too Much: Mary realizes this after she discovers Sam imprisoned with Malestrazza and decides to kill her after she kills the latter.
- Shout-Out: Sam describes the Malestrazza building as the Bates Motel, only bigger and something out of Gotham City in the middle of a marshland.
- Sinister Suffocation: Young Julie wakes up to find herself about to suffocate in a small sealed room that is quickly filling with cement. It's later revealed that her murder was intentional (along with those of her father and 14 other people) on the part of Joseph Malestrazza, the architect who designed the apartment block that Julie was living in, as he wanted to preserve the building and believed Human Sacrifice was used for preservation of the Great Pyramid of Giza.
- Skyward Scream:
- Julie, albeit briefly, when she's about to drown in cement.
- Sam in a Nightmare Sequence.
- Stalker with a Crush: Jimmy becomes this to Sam to the point of becoming a Crazy Jealous Guy and The Peeping Tom.
- The Teaser: The film opens with the impending demise of Julie, followed by the title sequence.
- Time Skip: After Julie's impending demise in The Teaser, the rest of the movie is set 15 years later.
- Tragic Keepsake:
- Jimmy's dog was originally bought by his father for Julie.
- Sam finds a framed photograph of Julie during her first night in the Malestrazza building.
- Wall Slump: Julie's hands slump down into the rising cement as she's about to drown in it.
- Would Hurt a Child:
- Joseph Malestrazza willingly abducted an innocent little girl (Julie) from her apartment in the middle of the night, walled her up inside a hollow building column and drowned her in cement, just to preserve his architecture. Who's to say he didn't do this to another child or two?
- Mary is overprotective to the point of abusive to her son Jimmy as a result of her own Roaring Rampage of Revenge for the murders of his father and sister.
- You Are Too Late: Implied with Jimmy's dog when it came to tagging on to Julie's demise.
