Respond to these rapid questions in our Shut In quiz and we will tell you which Shut In character you are. Play it now.
The movie “Shut In” has the feel of an attempt to follow in the exact footsteps of M. Night Shyamalan, as made by people whose knowledge of his oeuvre is based only on everything from the last ten minutes of “Signs” onwards. This is a problem because M. Night Shyamalan has never attempted to follow in anyone else’s footsteps. It is a thriller that moves at a molasses-like pace to begin with, and it spends the next hour or so meandering around while telling a story that consists of elements borrowed wholesale from other, better sources, before arriving at the kind of “shocking” final twist that is so ludicrously conceived and executed that you wonder how the filmmakers ever expected to get away with it. This is followed by the kind of “shocking” final twist that is so lu The fact that the wonderful actress Naomi Watts was somehow roped into starring in it, despite the fact that it offered nothing of value for someone of her talents other than a paycheck, is, to put it bluntly, the most surprising thing about the entire enterprise.
Mary Portman, the character that Watts portrays, is a child psychologist who works and resides in a remote part of rural Maine. At the beginning of the story, her husband has been killed in a terrible car accident, and her stepson Stephen, who is 18 years old and played by Charlie Heaton of “Stranger Things,” has been left paralyzed from the neck down and unable to communicate. Six months later, Mary is still the only one caring for Stephen at home, and despite the fact that she loves him, it is obvious that the pressure is starting to get to her. Her sessions over Skype with a different therapist, Oliver Platt, are not proving beneficial. One evening, one of her more difficult patients, a young deaf boy named Tom (Jacob Tremblay from the film “Room”), shows up at her front door. Before she can do much of anything, he just as quickly takes off into the chilly evening and cannot be located anywhere. Mary is consumed with feelings of guilt due to what has taken place, and the search for Tom continues in earnest. Meanwhile, strange occurrences start to take place around the house. Her psychiatrist friend believes that she may be suffering from the effects of parasomnia as a consequence of what has occurred with both Stephen and Tom; however, she is convinced that something entirely different is taking place. It is a good thing that there is a raging ice storm on its way to where she lives because then nothing strange or bizarre would ever happen to her when she was cut off from the rest of the world, right?
But you shouldn’t waste any more time and start this Shut In quiz.
Shut In Quiz
I suppose the “Shut In” concept has some potential, but the way it was put into action here is pretty much a disaster from the very beginning to the very end. When you watch how the story develops, you get the impression that the first-time screenwriter Christina Hodson conceived of the major plot twist at the end of the movie first, and then decided to work backwards to create a narrative that would fit it. That strategy suffers from not one but two significant flaws. To begin, the major red herring is so preposterous that viewers are more likely to find themselves chuckling at its sheer silliness than being stunned by the dramatic rug being pulled out from under them. (Suffice it to say, in light of this, the shocking turn of events in “The Boy” seems almost unremarkable and rational in comparison.) Second, the narrative that leads up to the reveal that is less than spectacular is a laborious slog that spends more time blatantly stealing elements from Stanley Kubrick’s interpretation of “The Shining” than it does trying to create a compelling narrative of its own. To make matters even worse, director Farren Blackburn (a veteran of television shows such as “Doctor Who” and “Daredevil”) directs everything at such a poky tempo that it feels twice as long as its 90-minute running time. He also demonstrates an inability to deliver a scare that does not solely rely on people suddenly popping up out of nowhere. Believe me when I say that after a certain amount of time, that becomes very tedious.
Also, you will find out which character are you in this Shut In quiz.
About the quiz
Which brings us back to the unexplainable presence of Naomi Watts, an actress whose work I have admired ever since I saw her for the first time in the long-forgotten film “Tank Girl.” Her performance in “Mulholland Drive” is one of the best screen performances that I have ever seen. Which brings us back to the unexplainable presence of Naomi Watts. She has appeared in a large number of movies, some of which are very good and some of which are very bad, but few of those movies have provided her with as little material to work with as this one does. She gives it her all, to be sure, but she is unable to overcome the inanities of a screenplay that is so beneath her that there are times when it seems to be going out of its way to embarrass her. For example, in one particularly humiliating moment, we get to see one of the best actresses in the area knelt in front of a toilet naked while chugging baby shampoo in order to help her induce vomiting. The screenplay is so beneath her that there (Yes, I suppose everything makes sense when viewed in its proper context, but even so…)
Also, you must try to play this Shut In quiz.
It just so happens that there is another relatively unknown horror movie called “The Monster” that is being released today. Like “It Follows,” “The Monster” deals to some degree with tense relationships between parents and children, physical and emotional isolation, guilt, automobile accidents, and things that go bump in the night. Now, that movie is by no means perfect by any stretch of the imagination; it tries a little too hard to be interpreted as metaphorical, and the monster looks just a little bit too cheesy at times for its own good; however, it at least has the decency to offer viewers a story that resonates beyond the “Boo!” moments, a couple of excellent performances from its two leads, and a couple of scares that are actually effective here and there. “Shut In,” on the other hand, is the kind of careless genre hackwork that will inspire more yawns than screams — at least until the final reels, when the sounds of incredulous laughter will undoubtedly take over the film’s atmosphere.
For more personality quizzes check this: The Wild Life Quiz.
