Shut In (2016 film)

Plot

Steven is a troubled kid being sent to boarding school. While his father, Richard Portman, is driving him there, they get into a bad argument, and the car swerves into oncoming traffic.

Six months later, Richard is dead and Steven is in a vegetative state. His stepmother, Mary, takes care of his every need. Mary is a clinical psychologist who works from home with children and adolescents. She is upset to learn that one of her patients, a deaf child named Tom, is to be transferred to a school in Boston. Later, Mary discusses Steven with her therapist, Dr. Wilson. While she feels guilty, she has decided to put Steven in a home to be cared for because he is no longer there and is just a body.

Doug Hart, the father of one of her patients, asks her out, but Mary declines, implying that it would be unprofessional.

She finds Tom asleep in her car. She brings him inside and makes a call, but Tom vanishes. The police conduct a fruitless search. Over the following nights, Mary wakes up to sounds in the house, and even wakes up to see Tom in the darkness one night. She discusses these events with Dr. Wilson, who attributes it to parasomnia. Dr. Wilson wants to prescribe her some medication, and orders some blood work.

Mary reconsiders and has dinner with Doug. Later, Steven is missing from his bed. She finds a small door to a crawlspace, and is grabbed from inside by two small hands. The next morning, she wakes up on the floor. Steven is back in his bed, but has scratches on his face.

She gets two offers to leave her house before an impending snow storm, one from her assistant Lucy, and another from Doug, but declines both. Dr. Wilson contacts her via Skype with her blood work results. He admonishes her because her stepson’s medication is showing up in her blood. Mary denies taking any medication and walks away without ending the call. Dr. Wilson sees Steven’s empty wheelchair, then sees Steven walk across the living room. The lights go out in the house and computer connection drops.

Mary is in the basement when the lights go out. She sees Tom, and just then, Steven attacks her. She wakes up bound, gagged, and naked in the bathtub, with Steven bathing her. He tells Mary how he woke up in the hospital after the accident with her there. He didn’t move or speak so that he could relish her attention. He believes that for six months they were happy together, but then Tom arrived.

It turns out that Tom has been living in the crawlspace, rather than transfer to Boston. When Tom saw Steven moving around, Steven blocked him in the crawlspace, hoping he would starve to death. Steven was keeping her disorientated by slipping her his medicine, allowing him to walk around at night, but also confusing her whenver she saw Tom. When Steven goes to deal with Tom, Mary unties herself. Dr. Wilson is rushing to Mary’s house, but wrecks his car on the way. Mary finds Steven and Tom in the basement, and learns that Steven killed his father on purpose. She and Tom escape the basement and hide in a closet.

Dr. Wilson arrives and Steven stabs him. Mary tries to leave and discovers Doug’s dead body blocking the door. Dr. Wilson, with his dying breath, advises Mary to play along with Steven's delusion. Steven has nailed all of the exits shut, so Mary breaks a skylight and Tom climbs out. She then plays along with Steven's delusions until she is able to escape. She and Tom run to the lake, where submerges Tom in the freezing water. Mary grabs the hammer Steven threw down and strikes him on the head, finally killing him.

Days later, Mary and Tom are seen arriving at the Child and Adoption center.

Cast

Production

On November 5, 2014, it was announced that EuropaCorp had set Farren Blackburn to direct Shut In, a psychological thriller based on the 2012 Black List script by Christina Hodson. EuropaCorp financed, distributed worldwide and co-produced the film with Lava Bear Films. Naomi Watts was set to play the lead role. On March 18, 2015, Oliver Platt, Charlie Heaton, David Cubitt, Jacob Tremblay, and Clementine Poidatz were added to the cast of the film.

Filming

Filming began in mid-March 2015 in Canada, as actress Watts was spotted on March 15 during filming in Sutton, Quebec. Filming took place in the Eastern Townships of Quebec before the production moved to Vancouver, British Columbia.

Release

In March 2015, EuropaCorp set the film for a February 19, 2016 release. On December 15, 2015, the release date was pushed back to June 17, 2016. In February 2016, the release date was pushed back again to September 9, 2016. In May 2016, the release date was pushed back again to November 11, 2016.

Box office

Shut In was released alongside Arrival and Almost Christmas, and was expected to gross around $6 million from 2,058 theaters in its opening weekend. It ended up grossing $3.7 million, finishing seventh at the box office.

Critical response

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 8%, based on 38 reviews, with an average rating of 3.1/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Fatally undermined by a clichéd, confused plot and a total absence of thrills, Shut In wastes its talented cast – and viewers' time." On Metacritic, the film has a score 25 out of 100, based on 14 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "C" on an A+ to F scale. Critics have also been quick to note the film's many similarities with The Shining.