Reviews of shut in movie#

Unconvincing slasher movie tropes ensue as the nearly indestructible character, who looked undeniably evil from the very beginning, drags his weapon menacingly against railings and walls while searching for his victims. The plot unravels as the crazed villain pursues Mary and Tom throughout the house. Watts and the viewers are both convinced that the late-night happenings are not just in her head, but for some reason her therapist Dr Wilson (Oliver Platt) refuses to listen to a woman’s cries for help (that is, until he shows up later on in the form of deus ex machina). When the thriller part sets in, it is always night-time in a house chock full of mysterious compartments and corners susceptible to harbouring heart-pounding jump scares. She, however, wants to take in one of her more troublesome patients, a young deaf boy named Tom (Jacob Tremblay) but when she brings him into her house and plans to send her son away to a care home, things start going terribly wrong as Tom disappears, seemingly into a vicious snowstorm, and starts haunting her at night. The story revolves around her character, Mary Portman, a widowed child psychologist who must take daily care of her catatonic stepson (Heaton), victim of the same accident that killed his father. When she’s not struggling to deliver her lines, Watts enters smoothly into her trademark horror stricken act and does succeed in grabbing the viewer’s attention. Despite an impressive cast comprising Naomi Watts (known for thrillers like Mulholland Drive and The Ring) and Stranger Things star Charlie Heaton, the script lets itself down with screamingly evident plot devices and dialogue so awkward the actors simply cannot pull it off naturally. As a serious film, it stumbles under the weight of its own stilted dialogue and lack of atmosphere. As a horror flick, Shut In delivers sufficient adrenaline with its use of screaming violins at opportune moments and scary young children prowling around in the night.

Reviews of shut in