Shut in
Year of release : 2016
Run time : 1h31m
Genre : Psychological Horror
Cast : Naomi Watts, Oliver Platt, Charlie Heaton
The movie opens with Mary and her husband, talking about sending their son to a boarding school due to him being a troubled child. On the way there, Stephen starts a fight with his father, derailing the car.
6 months later, in winter, his father is dead, Stephen is in a persistent vegetative state, and Mary, who is a child psychologist, and works from home, takes care of him.
We find out she is actually his step mother, and is working with a deaf-mute child who has problems in the children’s home he was put in, having to be moved out.
At night, she talks to her therapist, doctor Wilson, online, and she tells him she is putting Stephen in a home, as she thinks Stephen is gone, he’s just a body she takes care of. She admits she was the one who found the boarding school they were sending him to.
She starts having violent dreams, in which she k1lls Stephen, or in which someone is in the house, and hearing things in the house. The first time she hears noises, she finds the kid, Tom, in her car, after he broke the car window.
She calls Joan, who takes care of him, and asks her to let him stay with her. While she talks, the door locks, and when she manages to get out, Tom is gone, the front door wide open. So she thinks Tom ran out of the house.
She calls the police who are looking for him.
One of her patients’ father is asking her out, and although at first she refuses, she then accepts, but she invites him over, as she’s house bound, having to take care of Stephen 24/7.
She tells her therapist about it, thinking she is haunted by Tom who died, and he tells her she probably has parasomnia. He is asking her to have some blood work done, so he could give her pills for her condition.
After she has the blood work done, and dinner with her patient’s father, she wakes up from sleeping on the couch when the door closes, and she notices she can’t see well, feeling as if drugged.
She sees Stephen is missing from his bed, and while looking for him, she sees the small door to a crawl space is slightly opened, and trying to close it, small hands are trying to keep it closed, and then she closes it, scared, and passes out.
She wakes up in the morning, on the floor, and goes to check on Stephen who is in his bed, and has scratches on his face.
She talks to her therapist telling him it’s real, it’s not a dream, and she’s probably haunted by Tom. Her therapist is trying to convince her it’s all in her head.
A big storm is approaching, and everyone leaves their houses, moving into hotels. Mary doesn’t want to leave, as she says she’s been through worse winter storms.
Talking to her therapist, he tells her she should have told him she’s self medicating, with Stephen’s medicine, nonetheless! She tells him she has no idea what he’s talking about, as she didn’t take any pills of any kind!
Mary thinks she hung up on him, but she put him on hold or something, as to her it looks like she ended the call, but he can see what’s happening in her house, and he sees Stephen’s wheelchair empty, and Stephen walking through the house.
I personally didn’t like the movie. It started well, but after the reveal it lost me, and bored me, I couldn’t wait until it ended. Ironically the movie script was on the 2012 Black List, the list of best scripts. I don’t know what is it, so far I watched a few movies which’s scripts were on the Black List, and I hated them all!
SPOILERS Turns out Stephen is in love with Mary, and wants her all to himself, causing the car accident, and trying to k1ll the kid because to him it felt she chose the kid over him. There’s nothing wrong with him, he is just pretending so Mary would take care of him. I don’t know how this scenario would have worked with the doctors checking on his health and all that. Didn’t they test him and all the rest? Not to mention, she could have put him in a home from the getgo!
The moment she says she’s gonna send Stephen away for he’s gone, it’s just an empty shell, she starts experiencing the nightmares, and feels drowsy, which means he heard everything she said, and started drugging her. The so called nightmares and the noises in the house are from the kid hiding inside the walls and the pills Stephen put in her drinks. END OF SPOILERS
The acting was great from everyone involved, especially the leads. Ironically Naomi Watts received a Raspberry Award nomination for the role, but she was great.
The soundtrack was good. I liked how it sounded when she was drugged, like she had a ringing in her ears.
The visual effects were good.
The movie grossed a little over 13 million dollars at the box office, against a budget of 10 million dollars.
The movie received negative reviews from critics. Cinema Score audiences graded the movie a C.
Viewer discretion is advised as the movie contains nudity from Naomi Watts.
You can watch the full movie for free on the Ok.Ru platform.
Rating : Could have been a contender !