The Attic 1980
Directed by
George Edwards
Made by
Attic Associates
The Attic Plot Summary
Read the complete plot summary and ending explained for The Attic (1980). From turning points to emotional moments, uncover what really happened and why it matters.
Louise Elmore Carrie Snodgress is a depressed, alcoholic spinster who works as the head librarian in Wichita, Kansas. Since her fiancé, Robert, disappeared the day before their wedding nineteen years ago, Louise has devoted herself to caring for her infirm, abusive father, Wendell Ray Milland, who is confined to a wheelchair. After a nervous breakdown and a fire started inside the library, Louise resigns and begins training her younger incoming replacement, Emily Perkins Ruth Cox. Following the fire, Louise attempts suicide by slashing her wrists, but survives. Louise and Emily quickly become friends, and Emily shows genuine empathy toward Louise. At home, Louise harbors fantasies of revenge against her father, sometimes even imagining murder.
One night, Louise goes to the movie theater alone, where she meets Richard, a sailor. After the film, Louise accompanies him to a hotel, and the two have sex. The next day, Louise and Emily spend the morning shopping. When Emily notices Louise’s affection for a chimpanzee in a pet store window, she secretly buys the animal as a gift. Louise brings the chimp home and names him Dickie. Emily confides in Louise about her own boyfriend who has moved to California and wants her to join him there; Emily is reluctant to leave Kansas, but Louise urges that she should go, citing the state of Louise’s life as evidence.
Emily invites Louise to dinner at her mother’s house; the dinner goes awkwardly as Mrs. Perkins scolds Emily’s younger brother for his manners. Louise responds by breaking one of Mrs. Perkins’ cherished figurines, feigning an accident. The next evening, Emily and the library staff throw a small party to bid Louise farewell. When Louise returns home, she finds Dickie missing, and her father claims the chimpanzee ran away. Louise grows distraught. The next morning, Louise buys a plane ticket to Los Angeles for Emily and mails it to her at the library with a short note. Emily decides to seize the opportunity and heads to the airport, calling Louise from a payphone to thank her.
The following day, Louise brings her father to the local park. As she wheels him up a hill, the wheelchair tips over and Wendell falls out. He stands up, revealing that he has feigned disability to keep Louise under his control. In a burst of rage, Louise pushes him down the hill, and he dies when his head strikes a rock. Louise flees the house to gather her belongings and search for her father’s hidden money. In the attic, she finds a key to a long-locked space, and, once inside, discovers Dickie’s body alongside the long-decomposed remains of Robert, both victims of her father’s murderous acts.
The Attic Timeline
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Louise's solitary life in Wichita
Louise Elmore is a depressed, alcoholic spinster who works as a head librarian in Wichita, Kansas. She has not recovered from her fiancé Robert's disappearance the day before their wedding nineteen years ago. She dedicates herself to caring for her abusive, wheelchair-bound father Wendell, who exerts control over her.
Fire at the library and suicide attempt
After a nervous breakdown, Louise causes a fire in the library and resigns from her job. She begins training her younger incoming replacement, Emily Perkins. Louise has previously attempted suicide by slashing her wrists but survives the attempt.
Louise and Emily form a bond
Louise and Emily quickly become friends, with Emily showing empathy toward Louise's pain and isolation. Louise starts to open up to Emily about her grief and resentment toward her father.
Louise's revenge fantasies against her father
Louise often fantasizes about taking revenge on her father, sometimes imagining murder as a release from his coercive control. The thoughts reveal the depth of her despair and the dangerous edge of her feelings. Yet she remains trapped by her dependency and fear.
Meeting Richard at the cinema
One night she goes to the movie theater alone and meets Richard, a sailor who interests her. After the film, she goes back to his hotel with him, and they have sex. The encounter offers Louise a fleeting escape from her loneliness.
Dickie joins the household
The next day, Louise and Emily go shopping, and Emily purchases a pet chimpanzee named Dickie as a gift after noticing Louise's fascination with a chimp in a window. Louise reluctantly brings the animal home, despite Wendell's reluctance to have it around. The chimpanzee's arrival deepens the odd tension at Louise's house.
Emily considers California and Louise's urging
Emily confides that her boyfriend has moved to California and wants her to join him there, but she is reluctant to leave Kansas. Louise argues that Emily should take the chance and change her life, using her own past as evidence for the need to seize opportunities.
Dinner with the Perkins and the broken figurine
Emily invites Louise to dinner at her mother's house, where the Perkins family is stiff and judgmental. The awkward evening ends with Louise breaking Mrs. Perkins' cherished figurine, feigning an accident to deflect blame. The incident strains the new friendship and foreshadows a volatile departure.
Farewell party and Dickie's disappearance
The following evening, library staff throw a small party to bid Louise farewell. On returning home, Louise discovers that Dickie has gone missing; Wendell claims the chimpanzee ran away. Louise grows increasingly distressed at the apparent loss.
Emily's LA departure and Louise's mail
The next morning, Louise purchases a plane ticket to Los Angeles for Emily and mails it to her at the library, with a note of encouragement. Emily uses a payphone to call Louise and express her gratitude before leaving for California. Louise's act appears to push Emily toward a new opportunity.
The park reveal and the fatal push
Louise takes her father to the local park, where the wheelchair tips over and he falls out. He reveals that he has been faking his disability to control her, and Louise realizes she has been manipulated. In a fit of rage she pushes him down the hill, killing him when his head smashes against a rock.
Attic discovery: Dickie and Robert
Fleeing the scene, Louise searches for her father's hidden cache of money and finds a key to the attic. She enters the locked attic and discovers Dickie’s body along with the long-decomposed remains of Robert, both murdered by Wendell. The revelation exposes the true danger behind her supposed family safety and seals her fate.
The Attic Characters
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Louise Elmore
Louise is a depressed, alcoholic head librarian in Wichita who has nursed nineteen years of care for her feigned-disabled father. She harbors fantasies of revenge and shows empathy toward Emily, revealing a longing for connection and a fragile sense of control. Her emotions spiral as she confronts her father’s manipulation, culminating in a fatal act that upends her life.
Wendell Elmore
Wendell is Louise’s abusive father who pretends to be disabled to keep her under his control. He wields manipulation and fear to maintain power, and his secret violence is revealed only later. Louise’s realization of his true nature culminates in a violent confrontation.
Richard (Sailor)
A sailor Louise meets after the film and shares a night with her, offering a fleeting escape from her stagnant life. The encounter underscores Louise’s longing for companionship and a chance to feel desired outside her ordinary routine.
Emily Perkins
Emily is Louise’s younger coworker and friend who is also facing her own crossroads about leaving Kansas; her boyfriend has moved to California, and Louise helps her pursue that escape by arranging a plane ticket to Los Angeles. She embodies hope and the possibility of new beginnings.
Dickie (chimpanzee)
Dickie the chimpanzee is a pet Louise brings home, symbolizing her longing for companionship and care. His presence adds a caring, almost childlike dimension to Louise’s life, and his fate becomes tied to the attic’s dark secrets.
Robert Orin Farnsworth
Robert is Louise’s fiancé who disappeared the day before their wedding, a mystery haunting Louise and shaping her mistrust and longing for closure.
Librarian
The Librarian, a minor figure, represents the institutional backdrop of Louise’s daily life at the library and the social norms she contends with. Her presence marks the setting’s professional veneer amid personal turmoil.
Mrs. Perkins
Mrs. Perkins is Emily’s mother who appears at family gatherings; she embodies the social expectations of polite society and exerts a subtle, controlling presence.
The Attic Settings
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Location
Wichita, Kansas, Los Angeles, California
The primary setting is Wichita, Kansas, where Louise works as a head librarian in a quiet, routine-driven environment. The city backdrop also includes scenes in a movie theater, a local park, and Louise’s home, illustrating the contrast between public normalcy and private turmoil. A later sequence moves toward air travel and Los Angeles, signaling a possible escape and new beginnings.
The Attic Themes
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Abuse & Control
Louise endures coercive control from her father, who feigns disability to keep her dependent. The dynamic reveals how caregiving can become a prison, eroding autonomy over years. Her fantasies of revenge expose a burning desire to reclaim power and shape her own fate.
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Secrets & Confinement
A hidden attic stores the past: the long-dead remains of Robert and the chimp Dickie are discovered, revealing Wendell’s deception. The revelation reframes what is real and deepens Louise’s sense of entrapment. The attic motif underscores how secrets imprison characters and drive the plot.
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Revenge & Liberation
Louise’s actions escalate from self-preservation toward decisive acts that end her father’s control over her life. The film explores the moral costs of violence as a means to escape and the ambiguity of liberation. The plan to help Emily escape to Los Angeles marks a turning point toward independence.
The Attic Spoiler-Free Summary
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In the quiet sprawl of Wichita, Kansas, a modest public library becomes both sanctuary and cage for a woman whose life has been reduced to routine care. Louise Elmore, the head librarian, spends her days cataloguing stories while the walls of her cramped home close in, dominated by an aging father whose frailty is only a veneer for an unyielding presence. The city’s modest hum offers little distraction, and the weight of a broken engagement from nearly two decades ago lingers like an unfinished chapter.
Wendell, Louise’s father, sits in a wheelchair, his domineering habits shaping every decision she makes. Beneath the surface, Louise nurtures a private world of dark fantasies and fleeting escapes, turning to alcohol and the occasional daydream of freedom. The only bright spot in her otherwise muted existence arrives in the form of a mischievous chimpanzee she adopts from a shop window, a creature that brings a rare, unguarded smile to her face.
When a new, compassionate colleague arrives—a bright‑spirited replacement named Emily—the library’s stale atmosphere begins to shift. Emily’s empathy and youthful optimism offer Louise a glimpse of a life beyond caretaking, while a brief, unexpected encounter with a sailor named Richard hints at possibilities that lie outside the familiar streets she walks. These connections stir both hope and unease, inviting Louise to question the boundaries she has long accepted.
Yet beneath the ordinary lies a thread of long‑kept family secrets, hinted at by the very rooms Louise has never entered and the shadows that linger in the attic. The film dwells in a mood that is equal parts melancholy and unsettling, inviting the audience to feel the suffocating weight of duty while sensing that something hidden waits to be uncovered. In this tightly wound portrait, the ordinary becomes a canvas for dread, and every small act of kindness or rebellion may lead to revelations that could upend the fragile world Louise has built.
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