Tom, a deaf nine-year old patient (Jacob Tremblay) has some of Stephen’s tendencies. “You can’t save every child in Maine,” her assistant burbles in her Not-a-Mainer accent. Wilson ( Oliver Platt) agrees, via Facetime, that this might be the right thing to do. She’s overwhelmed and depressed by that and ready to place him somewhere else. The accident left him paralyzed and catatonic, and Mary is his sole caregiver. Stephen is a violent kid with impulse control issues. She’s just lost her husband in a car wreck on his way to take his son ( Charlie Heaton) to an institution. It was cheaper to film in Quebec and that’s that. Pay no attention to the assistant and patients with French accents. Watts plays Mary, a child psychologist in suburban Maine. But they had the bare bones to build a passable if routine thriller here, if they’d known what they were doing. Ted Baehr loves to say, “Great movies have a great story, well told, with a positive worldview, and are spiritually uplifting or inspiring.” SHUT IN strikes out on all three.The team making “Shut In” had the Oscar-nominated star of “The Ring,” Naomi Watts, a big, creepy violent kids, a remote, old and creaky house isolated by a winter storm and menace from spooky things she cannot rationally believe.Īnd it doesn’t work. You leave the theater feeling inspired rather than just relieved. Many great movies raise your adrenalin levels, but they do so in the process of telling an exciting, redemptive story. There’s probably a lesson in that, considering the state of our families and our education system, but then again, maybe not.
It presents a depressing picture of modern, selfish psychopathic children. There’s nothing really redemptive about SHUT IN.
God is only mentioned in moments of surprise, and problems are to be dealt with using drugs and psychological treatment. The worldview is basically a humanist one. SHUT IN has a scene of side-view female nudity (not sexual), and there are a few bad words. The answer of course is because there are some moviegoers willing to pay money merely to see doors open to dark rooms and hear creepy music. As with so many similar movies, any sane person wonders why the victim chooses to say in such a house to be tormented night after night. Before he can be picked up, he disappears.įrom this point on, the movie is little more than an excuse to make creaking sounds, open doors to dark rooms, play creepy music, and make viewers wonder what’s going to pop out at them next and cause the music to spike suddenly. One boy, Tom, is about to be sent away, but escapes and shows up that night at her house. Mary works from her house as a clinical psychologist attempting to help difficult children. Each day he’s wheeled into position in front of a large screen for hours and hours of news broadcasts. He’s fed and bathed with no apparent response. He is quadriplegic and virtually a vegetable. Skipping six months, Mary cares for Stephen at their home. Stephen looks demonically angry and causes an accident that kills his father. SHUT IN opens with Mary’s stepson, Stephen, being driven by his father to a school for problematic children. It’s like taking drugs without actually taking drugs and should be avoided by anyone seeking uplifting entertainment. SHUT IN is a movie made to boost adrenalin levels using music, lighting and camera angles to generate the maximum level of fear. There’s nothing really redemptive or inspiring about SHUT IN, which relies on unimaginative horror movie techniques. It has a scene of partial nudity and some foul language. SHUT IN is little more than an excuse to make creaking sounds, open doors to dark rooms, play creepy music and make viewers wonder what’s going to pop out next. When one of Mary’s other patients disappears, someone starts stalking their house, with the intent of trying to kill her. Six months later, Mary cares for a supposedly paralyzed and comatose Stephen at their home. SHUT IN, a psychological horror movie, opens with Mary’s stepson, Stephen, being driven by his father to a school for children with behavioral problems.
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