Review of Shut In (2016) by Nintendoplayer — 09 Dec 2016

People need to be working. It's not just about paying bills. More importantly, it's about keeping busy which is vital psychologically. It gives us the feeling that we have purpose or at least a direction - so we can feel that we belong somewhere and this big train called Life has not left the station without us.

Movie people need to be working too, even more so than a regular joe with a regular steady job. Because movie biz can feel very hectic and random. You end one project, feel the threat of the great unknown and the only supporting thought may be: so what's next? It would be good to have couple of new offers already waiting.

This is the way, at least according to my hypothesis, that most genre movies are made. You know, the kind of movies that don't feel like they have anything to say really, and may not even show much passion for the story, topic or genre they represent.

People just rehash whatever has done before countless times, sometimes with feeling (almost) fresh and becoming a cult classic, sometimes ending up just dull and ugly.

But somebody somewhere managed to get enough funding for it, using magic pitching words like "This is gonna be like X but with added Y and Z" and now it needs to be done. Hey - people need to be working anyway.

"Shut In" is that tedious genre movie that many probably feel the need to not watch til the end and some certainly even like, because they haven't seen this kind of thing too many times before, or they are in generous mood and the night was boring anyway, or they just did lots of drugs and now everything feels exciting, whatever.

It reshashes the cliches of even two cheap horror sub-genres. I will only name "hostile house" because otherwise I would spoil the fun for some lucky person. Child psychologist is living alone with her vegetable-state-son and then she discovers some disturbing activity in the house which seems like... Damn, I'm too good. Now it seems more interesting in writing than it really is.

The first part plays out like any other haunted house movie. It's a bit slow and tedious and workmanlike... you will probably check your clock during the first 30 minutes and think: "OK, it's not that bad..." That's mostly due to starring lady Naomi Watts who does convincing job as reclusive person who is slowly bowing down on the heavy load the life has put on her shoulders.

Then we reach the second part and the movie makers feel the need start adhering to the rule that any Any Self Respecting Low Budget Horror Must Have A Big Twist in the End or Second Half.

The movie changes tone completely and turns to shit quickly. It was just harmless and tedious before, now it's just silly and makes you crawl your eyes and ask "Really?" a lot.

It would probably be tolerable as a subplot in "90210"-style teen drama but not as a second half of a major movie. Having said that, I discovered that the director's body of work does include mainly episodes of different not-quite-A-list TV series.

If there's a single argument for watching "Shut In" and not any better thriller/horror that its copying, then it would be Naomi Watts. She totally justifies spending the big bucks (in case they didn't get her cheap for some reason).

She's always believable, even in the last third when the onscreen events turn to kind of "I am not sure if I am able to continue watching this without laughing or instead checking Facebook in my phone" bad.

I would recommend re-watching "The Sixth Sense" or "The Others" instead. Watts has gotten her money for her good work, now let's let the nature take its course and bury this little movie under the rug of time. It will probably reach Netflix and/or other streaming services soon, so you can check it out and quit in 15 minutes or so.

Watts seems to believe she hasn't outstayed her welcome in horror genre although her better-received projects ("The Ring" 1-2 and Peter Jackson's "King Kong") are already at least ten years old.

Of course there was also 2011's excremental "Dream House" but the less said about this colossal misfire, the better.