Aahana Swrup
Lifetime’s ‘Girl in the Attic“ is a tense thriller film revolving around the unnerving kidnapping of a young woman. 18-year-old Kelsey has big plans for her future, including undertaking a marathon in honor of her deceased mother’s life. However, her entire life is put in jeopardy when a morning run takes a turn for the worse. Billy, an obsessive stalker, kidnaps the teenager, stashing her away in his attic and holding her hostage. Eventually, his strange behavior catches the attention of his mother, Debbie, a wheelchair user, who remains oblivious to what goes on in her attic. Nevertheless, even after she unearths her son’s horrific truth, she remains helpless to help the young woman out as Billy renders her hostage in her own home. Consequently, as the two women’s situation becomes more and more aggravated, it’s up to Debbie and Kelsey to fight for their own freedom. SPOILERS AHEAD!
Girl in the Attic: A Distressing Tale That Makes You Feel For Its Protagonists
‘Girl in the Attic’ finds a slow but strong start as it begins the narrative by setting up foundational roots around the central characters. Kelsey remains a ray of sunshine from the minute she appears on screen, beloved by her friends and family. She’s kind, thoughtful, and considerate, forming immediate positive bonds between her and the audience. Inversely, Billy and Debbie instill a more complex air into the narrative. The former remains a duplicitous presence in the story from the start, inhibiting a helpful persona in front of his mother while stealing from her behind her back. On the other hand, Debbie remains relatively suspicious of her son, even as she’s compelled to be appreciative of his presence in her life.
Thus, the stage is perfectly set for each character’s storyline to unfold erratically and dramatically. Under David Weaver’s direction, the film excels at defining the journey that Kelsey, Billy, and Debbie go down. As such, every emotional beat hits close to home, encouraging the viewers to grow sympathetic toward the victims and aggravated by the perpetrator. In this regard, the lead actors, Jean Louisa Kelly, Sophia Carriere, and Keenan Tracey, deserve their flowers for infusing intimate authenticity into their performances. Although the story remains fairly predictable, it has its moments of twists and turns that keep the narrative’s pacing on its toes. Ultimately, the film charts a highly emotional story where adversaries are overcome through personal strength and partnership, which will appeal to many.
Girl in the Attic Plot Synopsis
Kelsey Romano lost her mother to breast cancer. For the same reason, she’s raising awareness by participating in an upcoming marathon and using her social media platform to raise funds for charity. While most of her followers are friendly and supportive, her content eventually ends up in the wrong hands. Billy has recently moved back in with his mother, after an injury turned her into a wheelchair user. As a result, he has been taking care of her and helping her around the house with things that her limited mobility makes difficult. Although he puts on a selfless front for Debbie and their neighbors, he often exploits this situation to his own benefit. For instance, he secretly steals money from her only to turn around and gaslight her into blaming herself.
In the aftermath of one guilt-tripping session, Debbie encourages her son to transform his attic into a place where he can foster his own interests. Unbeknownst to her, Billy’s incel-leaning philosophies and thinking brew up a horrifying use for the room. The next morning, he tracks down Kelsey’s running route and ends up orchestrating a run-in with her. Thus, he abducts the teenager after catching her off guard. The next time Kelsey wakes, she’s tied up in an attic, where Billy tells her that he intends to make her compliant in the coming days to turn her into his obedient, docile wife. Meanwhile, Sophia and Kelsey’s father continues to search for the missing girl, but to no avail. As such, days turn into weeks, and then months, and the teenager remains bound in Billy’s attic.
With a controlled diet, frequent physical, psychological, and sexual abuse, and metal shackles around her hands and legs, Kelsey’s condition worsens day by day. During this time, Debbie often grows suspicious about her son’s behavior, particularly what he does in the attic. Nonetheless, she remains in the dark with no real way to venture into the space. In fact, Billy tries to pass off his eclectic behavior by telling his mother that he has a girlfriend. Yet, one wrong photograph tips the mother off. As a result, when the son gets out of the house, Debbie crawls her up to the attic and finally discovers Kelsey, the teenager who has been held hostage for more than a year now. Nonetheless, Billy returns before she can call for help. Thus, once he realizes his secret is out, he takes away his mother’s wheelchair, putting her in a similar boat as his other hostage.
Girl in the Attic Ending: Does Kelsey Get Rescued? How?
Kelsey’s father and her best friend, Sophia, learn of her disappearance hours after Billy kidnaps her. Yet, even after they reach out to the authorities, little to no progress is made in her case. Consequently, the teenager remains locked up in her kidnapper’s attic for fifteen months before anyone even learns of her existence. Yet, even after Debbie finds Kelsey, the older woman becomes equally helpless. Despite the shock of learning about her son’s horrific actions, Debbie is eager to call the authorities to help the young woman. Nonetheless, Billy manages to catch her in the act. As such, once she becomes a threat to him, he decides to lock her up inside the house as well.
Still, Debbie refuses to back down without a fight. Once Billy becomes confident that Kelsey is afraid enough not to run away, he brings her out of the attic to work as a live-in maid around the house. This gives his mother the perfect opportunity to employ the teen’s help in setting a trap against their jailer. The duo plans to drug Billy during his birthday dinner by mixing crushed sleeping pills in his beer. Nonetheless, their plan goes sideways, further aggravating their situation. Once Billy realizes they have been conspiring against him, he takes away his mother’s arthritis pills to render her limbs completely immobile.
Fortunately, Kelsey stumbles across these stolen pills a few days later. Therefore, she’s able to smuggle them back to Debbie to build her strength back up in secret. From there, a new plan is set into motion. The mother, still pretending to be immobile, scratches her son, which compels him to force Kelsey to give her a manicure. As a result, Debbie gets her hands on some acetone while Billy’s guard is down. Consequently, she uses the flammable substance to set fire to her house and set off the fire alarms. Thanks to a previous unfortunate cooking incident, she knows her neighbor Byrd is bound to hear this noise since it always makes her hearing aids act up.
Surely enough, Byrd is alerted to the noise and goes knocking on Debbie’s door at once. When she receives no answer, she inevitably calls 911 for help. As such, in a matter of hours, cops and firefighters surround the house. Once Debbie tells them about the girl in her attic, they’re able to rescue Kelsey from her nightmarish abduction. In the aftermath of her rescue, the teenager is reunited with her family, who never truly gave up their search for her. Even though she needs to do much work to overcome the trauma of her abduction, both mental and physical, she’s finally free to return to her old life.
Does Debbie Walk Again? What Happens to Her House?
Debbie’s mobility problems stem from a spinal cord injury that she sustained in a car accident a few months ago. Still, even though it prevents her from walking for some time, recovery remains in the cards for her. With proper medication and physiotherapy, she can regain the mobility in her legs and walk freely again. In fact, after a few therapy sessions with Byrd, Debbie began walking again with a walker in a matter of weeks. However, even though Billy pretends to be happy about her progress, he doesn’t actually want his mother to ever walk again. His mother’s condition makes her eligible for disability cheques, which Billy is more than happy to exploit for his own purposes. For the same reason, he routinely steals her arthritis medication to rob her of the opportunity to recover.
Similarly, Debbie’s house, a generational asset, means a lot to the woman. As such, she consistently rejects buyers’ offers and is adamant about keeping the property in her family. Yet, Billy doesn’t have the same opinion on the house and often threatens to sell the place to get his mother to comply with his rule. Nonetheless, soon enough Debbie realises that the house is no good to her if all she can be in it is a prisoner. Thus, when the time comes, she chooses to burn the place down to give herself and Kelsey a chance at an escape from their tormentor’s hold. In the aftermath, once her abusive son is no longer in her life, the mother finds the freedom to pursue her recovery in peace. As such, by the end, she’s able to walk once again on her own two feet, free from Billy’s control in more ways than one.
What Happens to Billy? Is He Arrested?
Over the course of the story, Billy commits many atrocities against Kelsey and his mother. He kidnaps and holds the teenage girl hostage for more than a year. Throughout this year, he abuses her in every which way, trying his best to break her spirit. He seems to have convinced himself that torturing Kelsey in such brutal ways is the only way to find an “obedient wife” for himself. From his interactions with his mothers, it’s evident that Billy holds extremely hateful views toward women. Even though his father was a deadbeat who left Debbie to become the sole breadwinner of the family on multiple occasions, her son still idolizes the former over her.
Billy seems to believe that all women simply want to leech off of men’s money, conveniently overlooking the fact that he’s doing the exact same thing with his mother. Worse yet, for the better part of the story, it feels like he’ll be able to get away with his crimes. He has crafted the perfect persona for himself that allows him to abuse his mother and keep Kelsey hostage in the house without anyone noticing from the outside. Still, he can only stay hidden for so long. After Debbie burns down the house to bring the cops to her door, it’s only a matter of time before they arrest her son. As such, in the end, Billy pays for his crimes while the two women he terrorized finally get to move on with their lives.
Read More: Is Lifetime’s Girl in the Attic Based on a True Story?
