Shut In

Despite its official IMDB categorization, and almost every descriptor out there for the movie, make no mistake, Shut In is only mildly thriller; the rest is straight-up horror. This does not, unfortunately, make it a particularly good movie. It's too confused with itself between those two facets of its identity, but it's beautifully shot and features some lovely actors doing the best they can with an implausible script.

Shut In (2016)
Released: November 11, 2016
Director: Farren Blackburn
Screenplay: Christina Hodson

Tagline: "Don't believe everything you see"

Cast:
Naomi Watts as Mary Portman
Charlie Heaton as Steven Portman
Jacob Tremblay as Tom Patterson
Oliver Platt as Dr. Wilson
David Cubitt as Doug Hart

Our story centers around Mary, played by the beloved Naomi Watts, a widowed child-psychiatrist whose home and practice are located deep in the woods of northern Maine. Working out of her garage, Mary rarely leaves her home because her stepson Stephen, played by Charlie Heaton of Stranger Things, has been rendered almost entirely paralyzed by the car accident that killed his father, Mary's husband. 

To no one's surprise, a snowstorm of Westeros proportions is barreling down on the area and could potentially leave Mary without power for several days. One of Mary's patients, a 9-year old deaf boy with severe, even violent, tendencies named Tom (played by adorable actor Jacob Tremblay of Room (2015) fame, runs away from his foster care home on the night the storm is set to move in, sending Mary on a desperate scramble to find him before the storm arrives in full force. But then, strange things start happening in the house. Unexplained noises. Furniture out of place. Sinister visions at night. 

So begins a psychological mind game where the viewer is left to wonder if Tom is already hiding in the house, if it is his ghost, or if Mary is quietly beginning to lose her mind after the mental strain of taking care of her son and the guilt she feels in her decision to send him to an assisted living center after the storm. This is a great concoction brewing here, but it comes out sour. Instead, a predictable twist that was done better in a film earlier this year, The Boy, is what the viewer is left with. 

"Blink twice if Eleven's coming back next season"

Throughout the film, Mary's own psychiatrist, Dr. Wilson, tells her about all the different pills she needs to start popping because she's dumb or whatever, and then he ends up revealing the twist to the audience over Skype, which was anticlimactic and frustrating since Mary, who had been fighting back against him the entire time, now starts giving in to every basic horror cliche that make true genre fans scream. And speaking of anticlimactic, that big giant White Walker storm? It doesn't show up until the final fifteen minutes of the movie and then it has no bearing on the remainder of the plot in any way. Cool.

To be fair, I don't think anyone expected Shut In to be all that grand. It was stealth released without any advance screenings for the press, so you know that's always a red flag. But sometimes giving in to low expectations can yield diamonds in the rough so I thought, why not? It's not awful--and there are some fun nods to The Shining (1980) and Jacob's Ladder (1990)--but it is very, very average. Which, at this time of year, you just can't be if you hope to make any money. So I'd say wait on this one and spend your money at the theater on this year's various Oscar bait movies or, if you want to support a horror director, Dr. Strange by Scott Derrickson (Hellraiser: Inferno, The Exorcism of Emily Rose, Sinister, Deliver Us From Evil, Sinister 2). 

Shut In (2016)

5-Totally Terrifying

4-Crazy Creepy

3-Fairly Frightening

2-Slightly Scary

1-Hardly Horror

Don't Breathe

You'll be hard-pressed to find a more aptly titled film this year than Don't Breathe, director Fede Alvarez's simplistic but suspenseful sophomore effort that provides most, but not all, of the thrills and scares provided in the spoilery trailer. Besides that, the incredible use of sound, set pieces, and a solid cast giving their best all make for a deliciously wicked cocktail of a film, even if the aftertaste is a tad bitter.

Don't Breathe (2016)
Released: August 26, 2016
Director: Fede Alvarez
Screenplay: Fede Alvarez & Rodo Sayagues

Tagline: "This house looked like an easy target. Until they found what was inside."

Cast:
Stephen Lang as The Blind Man
Jane Levy as Rocky
Dylan Minnette as Alex
Daniel Zovatto as Money

Don't Breathe is, undoubtedly, a tense thrill ride, which his an impressive feat to pull off for a number of reasons, not least of which that the somewhat-spoilery trailers let us know much more than the basic premise. The film centers around a trio of down and out urban youths and petty thieves who make their cash by robbing wealthy homes of their valuables and electronics in bleak and desolate Detroit.  They decide to rob the home of a blind Gulf War veteran living in an otherwise abandoned suburb, thinking it'll be an easy score, but find that after they've broken into the house and blasted open a suspiciously locked door, they took on more than they bargained for in this particular heist.

As evidenced, the plot is simple, but that works in the film's favor. Little of the movie is wasted on nonsense or pointless characterization. Alvarez is adept at showing us only what we need to advance the story into the next frame while still giving his actors room to flex their roles. The cinematography is gorgeous, with some artful camera angles and skewed shots that add to the atmosphere of this flipped tale of the home invasion sub-genre. the camerawork makes the story feel epic in scale, even though we're confined to the very real-world setting of this decaying urban landscape, and the even realer setting of the house, which is made to feel like a labyrinth of twisted proportions thanks to the set design and clever tracking shots.

Marco?

Vital to the success of any great horror film is sound, from the infamous score in John Carpenter's Halloween (1978) to recent successes like It Follows (2014), sound can elevate a horror film to new, tense heights. In Don't Breathe, it's more the lack of sound that accomplishes this same feat in building the perfect, very particular atmosphere, needed for some of the film's most crucial moments. Which of course would also fall flat if not for the solid, strong talent of the actors, all of whom give very physical performances that ground the reality of the situation and help knock up the terror. Dylan Minnette provides a noticeably mature and believable performance in his role as level-headed Alex while Daniel Zovatto shines, albeit briefly, as Money, and the trio is anchored with a stalwart performance from Jane Levy, the film's de facto heroine. But Stephen Lang, in his performance as The Blind Man, steals the show, proving once again why he's so uniquely skilled at playing the villain. Lang adds depth, dimension, and even empathy to a character who might otherwise come off as inhumane in the hands of a lesser actor.

Yet for all this, I have to say that Don't Breathe still had its missteps. One of which occurred in the very opening shot. We open (with an awesome crane shot that tracks down into the suburban streets of Detroit) with a last-act revelation that offers up the fate of our characters, before then flashing back to watch the path that led here unfurl. And while this choice of opener doesn't detract of tense moments within the film, it detracts from the overall tension, as we know how things end up already. For me, this was a major detraction. I wish that Alvarez, or the studio, would trust the audience with a natural progression of story rather than unnecessarily opening on violence to "hook us." I couldn't help thinking that without this flash-forward scene, I would have been so much better positioned to have a rich, participatory experience with the movie. If you haven't seen it yet, I would honestly advise doing what you can to get to the theater a minute or two late. Your viewing will be much more "clean" that way.

Fro-yo after this, though?

Overall, Don't Breathe delivers. It's one of the better horror films of the year, combining slow burn tension with gut-punch terror and a sort of beautiful brutality. The Witch (2016) might be the "better" horror film for its atmospheric virtues, but Don't Breathe is the clear jolt fest. Alvarez wanted to prove wrong the critics who said he couldn't make an original horror movie without relying on blood and gore after his directional debut, the Evil Dead (2013) remake, and he succeeded. This film shows that he has a resourceful understanding of suspense, and a brilliant mind for what will get audience pulse racing. One scene in particular, a sequence shot entirely in night vision that is merciless and dripping with dread (not to mention a nice nod to Silence of the Lambs (1991) am I right?) is some fantastic filmmaking. Ironically, though, the film needed more restraint, or at least the marketing did. The trailers and promotions give away two of the movie's "twists" or turns in the storytelling, and the opening scene, as mentioned, needs to be cut, but there is one final surprising element that leads to one of the most disgusting moments in recent horror history. And if you're all about the journey, this is one hell of a ride for you. And you'll certainly need to catch your breath when it's over.


Don't Breathe (2016)

5-Totally Terrifying
4-Crazy Creepy

3-Fairly Frightening

2-Slightly Scary

1-Hardly Horror