Wall of Secrets (2003 TV Movie) User Reviews

To many twists & turns

[triple8 · 5/10 · 28 May 2006]

SPOILERS THROUGH:

This was made for television. It was not a bad movie overall but to complex when it didn't need to be.

The Story is promising but ultimately goes in a rather ho hum direction. The performers were OK. Paige, our heroin had a certain innocence about her and at least had her own personality. All of the cast were above average but Mc.Hattie was more then OK, he was GREAT as the dad. In fact the whole movie should have been about him. Instead disappointingly, he is only in the Movie for a short time. It's to bad because his character was was the most interesting in the movie.

Then there's the story itself. The story seems like it will go in a different direction then the path it takes and the One it does take isn't awful but is very convoluted and many things don't make sense. Ultimately it doesn't rivet one to the television either. I was kind of impatient for the conclusion.

To sum up-not a bad film, it's watchable and is decent enough mainly due to Mc.Hattie but really has some plot holes and could have gone in a different direction. I'd say about average.

Entertaining, but leaves you with questions if you look too deep

[mayaro19 · 6/10 · 22 August 2006]

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.

It didn't have to happen this way

[sol1218 · 5/10 · 3 December 2011]

***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!

Pure BS!!

[GaelinW · 30 May 2004]

This has a fairly decent plot idea and a competent cast, but the characterizations are just pure BS.

The main character played by Nicole Eggert is supposed to be an up and coming criminal attorney, on her way to a junior partnership before she leaves Seattle and moves with her new hubby to Chicago. Yet, she is beaten and later choked unconscious by a supposed police officer only to wake up handcuffed to chair. Then she finds out that she has been under surveillance since moving into their new apartment. No private moment has gone unrecorded.

After all this, she doesn't ask to see a warrant or any proof that these "policemen" are who they say they are? She doesn't protest about her rights having been violated??!?! Not to mention how she has been assaulted!!

Just what kind of attorney is she?!?! One you would hire only if you have a death wish and lethal injection sounds like what the doctor ordered

Acting "A" to "B" ---- Plot/Story "C-"

[caa821 · 3/10 · 19 September 2007]

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."

Above average made-for-tv thriller...

[vnssyndrome89 · 5/10 · 12 July 2023]

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.

This isn't what you think

[nightroses · 3/10 · 14 July 2021]

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 porn at the very beginning either.

Rating 2?

[thegulls1 · 2/10 · 22 March 2020]

Here's a short story: Film shows up on Amazon Prime. Nothing here at Imdb about content.

Right after opening credits, a breathy encounter ensues between an amorous couple, in a rapidly progressing state of nudity. Once the mammaries appeared, my wife and I bailed.

Told you it would be a short story. Dont know how much further things progressed, but it's hardly family entertainment.

BRUCE DIDN'T HAVE AN ACCIDENT. HE HAD ENEMIES.

[nogodnomasters · 3/10 · 25 June 2019]

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)

where can i buy this movie?

[chezjane76 · 8/10 · 7 April 2007]

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?

A Lawyer???

[marbleann · 11 June 2004]

This movie was seen on one of those days you reserve for Lifetime channel type movies. This is about a young professional couple who just moved from Seattle (where else does these type of couples live in movies). He is a architect and she is a lawyer. Believe me it was a shock to learn she was one halfway through the movie. This women is really a ditz. You have your full of eccentric people in the apartment building. Including a wheelchair bound neighbor Milton who asks inappropriate questions. And a eccentric senior citizen who lives across the hall. It seems the hubby got the apartment at fire sale price. A big deal is made about how cheap the apartment is, and a lot of noise is made about how long she has known her husband. That alone was enough to see what was coming. She hears things in the walls when no one is around. Her husband doesn't hear any of this. So of course we are to think this another take on the movie Gaslight...NOT!

Finally she talks to the eccentric senior citizen across the hall. She warns her about the noises and what happened to this unfortunate couple that died in the apartment. OH BOY here we go...in movies this means the place is haunted..not in this movie. Even though I am obligated to state this I feel it is a disservice because I do not want anyone to waste 2 hours of their life they would never get back like I did....SPOILERS AHEAD!! Once again the movie takes an unfortunate turn. Gee first I thought we had a take off of Gaslight, then I thought OK not Gaslight but some type of dead people in the walls movie. Both times I was disappointed. Then we get a another promising turn.. Suspicion! Because we soon learn that it is the cops bugging her apartment because her hubby and his father is into some dirty stuff. Oh that explains why her hubby rebuffs all of her suspicions!! Another false turn. The chap in the wheelchair is really a cop, he explains that they are being bugged because they are watching the husband.

Meanwhile the eccentric senior citizen dies by falling off her balcony. Earlier we found out she had this big wardrobe in front of the balcony because she is afraid of heights. So we know she did not just fall off of that balcony. The cops who are watching the apartment aren't listening. You see one has to be a blithering idiot not to think something is fishy with those cops. That is why you have to suspend all belief to believe she is lawyer!! The cops get this woman to spy on her husband. Instead of consulting one her lawyer buddies to find out some info about these cops and her rights she just goes along with it. It is apparent that this woman is a graduate of the Kookkookcabana School of Law. Turns out the landlord has some deal to lease the apartment out cheap to people the cops are watching!!! HUH! Chicago has 3 million people how in the heck did they know what apartment the husband was looking at! In any case the husband makes contact with his dad, she wears a wire for the cops. Things go bad because the dad corners her and finds the wire. Gee he is ONE BAD BAD DUDE.. No again. He is the good guy who was a cop that was set up by Milton..bad cop.

This movie has Stephen McHattie in it as the father. The problem is that he is not in the movie until the last 20 minutes. I hate these type of flicks that tease you with the thought of something better to come but turns up craps. Granted I know that Nicole Eggart is not a actress known for quality movies so my expectations were not high. But this movie made me feel cheated.

Nicole Eggert is a true super babe and can act as well.

[aocsincher · 8/10 · 19 February 2020]

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