In the Attic

Synopsis

In August of 1957, eleven-year-old Joey Jensen and his friend Billy Taylor are in a drug store picking through the comic book rack. Joey is an avid horror comic and horror movie fan and he picks two gruesome offerings. One of them, Mind Monster, is based on a new movie scheduled to open that weekend. Later that night Joey is in bed reading his new comics under the covers with a flashlight. Petey, his little brother, complains the Joey is keeping him awake. Their alcoholic, abusive stepfather enters the room. He’s tired of Joey’s nightmares, caused by his preoccupation with monsters, and administers his own method of discipline in the form of a heavy leather belt across Joey’s back. Joey and Billy stand in line at the theater, waiting to enter to see Mind Monster. Billy asks how Joey would feel if a creepy monster could be created from somebody’s imagination— if the thoughts were strong and hateful enough. “S’pose it would be okay…” replies Joey. In the film, a man and a woman being mugged are saved by a hideous clawed and tentacled beast created from the mind of the man. Joey begins to have a nightmare—a nightmare of a beast that calls Joey’s name and bursts into his room through the attic access door in the closet. Joey’s mother hears his cries and comes in to calm him down, assuring him that there is nothing in the closet or the attic but Christmas decorations and old junk. One school day, Joey’s teacher discovers him drawing monsters and hiding a horror comic. She takes his drawing and his book and tells him she will be calling his parents. Her call results in another beating for Joey, serving to increase his hatred toward his stepfather, and precipitating another appearance of the beast in Joey’s room—only this time while he is awake. On an afternoon near Christmas, Father tells Joey to help get Christmas decorations out of the attic. Joey resists; he doesn’t want him to open the access panel to the attic. When his Father drags him into the closet, he accidentally knocks over a stack of magazines and discovers Joey’s hidden stash of horror comics. As he is about to beat Joey, the beast from Joey’s nightmares drops its tentacles out of the attic and drags Father up inside. Joey goes into shock and into a silent shell. Eighteen years later, Joey’s brother Peter gets a call from a psychiatrist at the mental institution where Joey is confined. He asks Peter to come to the institution because Joey is becoming more violent. While Peter is in the office, screams come from Joey’s cell. He is shackled to his bed, having a nightmare about the monster in the attic. Peter and the doctor rush to the cell. Joey is gone, but the shackles are still locked. In the deserted house of Joey and his family, the living corpse of Joey’s stepfather tries to claw its way out of the attic. It is dragged back by a hideous beast with Joey’s face.