Shut In is Generic, but Still Worth Seeing

Naomi Watts and Charlie Heaton in Shut In (2016)

Shut In is the story of a grieving widow who's caring for her catatonic son when she's not working as a clinical psychologist. Plagued with horrifying nightmares, she begins to suspect that something darker is happening in her home, and starts questioning the safety of her and her son.

Fortunately, I went into Shut In with no expectations, because it's not a particularly frightening or thrilling film. Naomi Watts delivers a good performance, which is hardly surprising since she's always fantastic, but she still falls flat. There's a sense of a lack of investment in her character, as if she's simply going through the motions and hasn't given much thought to what sort of person her character truly is. Whether that's a purposeful attempt at showing how our protagonist has lost herself in the daily and mundane routine of caring for her ill son, or a lack of interest in the part, is up for debate.

That being said, Shut In is decent. In essence it's the monthly thriller that comes to theaters in order to keep audiences happy, and it rarely offers more than cheap jump scares and a bit too many dream sequences for one movie. While it is bold enough to make an effort to give the thriller genre a unique spin by showing a single mother struggling to raise a son who is completely immobile, it offers little else which hasn't been done again and again. It even resorts to the good old 'fake jump scare followed by a real jump scare' cliche, which only relieves the audience's tension and makes the second jump scare more obnoxious than it is frightening. With all the cliches and uninteresting characters, it's easy to see why critics aren't particularly fond of Shut In, but I will still defend this movie in that it's never boring.

Despite all the redundancy we've seen throughout the thriller genre and the fact that Shut In makes absolutely no attempt at straying away from those tropes and doing something new and interesting, there are still some moments where it's fresh and exciting. The music and beautiful cinematography of what is meant to be snowy isolated New England (but is actually Montreal) keeps the movie interesting even in its most peaceful moments, so there is little room for boredom or waiting for the movie to end. It also helps that the film has a rather short runtime of ninety-one minutes, preventing any time wasted on repetitive conversations or flashback sequences (dream sequences are bad enough).

While Shut In is a mediocre movie, I still encourage you to go see it, if only for the few things which do make it interesting and stand out from the genre (things which I won't mention here, because you need to see it for yourself). At worst it's just another boring and generic addition to the thriller genre, and at best it's a heart pounding rollercoaster which will have you clutching your seat and wondering what exactly is going on. Shut In is currently in theaters, but because it's not particularly visually striking it's not necessarily going to be a huge loss if you don't manage to catch it on time. Watch it on Netflix, or rent it when it comes out on Blu-ray, because while it's not the best film of the year, it's certainly one worth watching.

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