Shut In is a home-invasion thriller that invades all the wrong homes

As a home invasion/survival/isolation thriller alone, D.J. Caruso’s Shut In is mediocre at best. The director has fared better in this genre; Disturbia (2007), starring a young Shia Lebeouf, did more with a slim storyline of a troubled but voyeuristic teen under house arrest. In Shut In, young Jessica (Rainey Qualley) gets locked in the pantry. For much of the film, Jessica has to provide for her little daughter and toddler from inside this closed space. She instructs the little girl about caregiving and feeding the baby, passes her food from underneath the door, and soothes her with next to nothing. The house is in the middle of nowhere in rural America, so no rescue is forthcoming. Shut In might have been far more potent if it had stayed like this and trusted the physicality of this pandemic parable. In these moments, the film is almost poignant – the camera stays in the pantry, reducing the child to a frightened voice while Jessica rediscovers her frayed maternal instincts. Danger lurks outside, and all we can do is paint a mental picture of it. But Shut In is not just any home invasion thriller, is it? Scratch (or nail, in this case) the surface, and you’ll hear a Sunday Church sermon parading as a Hollywood B-movie. For some context, Shut In is the first original film by The Daily Wire, the conservative news website co-founded by alt-right political commentator Ben Shapiro. Which isn’t a problem per se. But its anti-liberal propaganda is so strong that it robs the film of all its genre shape, force-fits biblical metaphors, and turns it into a gory celebration of Good Christian Morality. The plot is loaded with the most random symbolism. Jessica keeps getting crucified (not just figuratively) for being a pro-choice single mother – that is, having kids out of wedlock – and being a former heroin addict. Her values were suspect, so the film has a nail slammed through her hand at one point. She gets locked in the pantry not once but twice. Her redemption is reluctant, almost like the script is saying: Kids, don’t be like Jessica, but if you must… The pantry is in her grandmother’s old house, which Jessica is looking to sell because she can’t afford the taxes. The writing insists that this is the wrong decision; inheritance from kind old Catholic ladies cannot be squandered. Jessica is made to see the light through the darkness she’s trapped in. A lot of money is found hidden between the pages of…the Bible. Passages are practically read out by Jessica, a character played by Qualley with such quivering blankness that one might imagine she didn’t vote for Trump in 2016; her fake Southern accent is scarier than most of what we see on screen. That’s not all. The external characters, Jessica’s ex and his druggie pal (who else but Vincent Gallo), are entirely unnecessary, but they appear only to drive home some blue-state lessons. The Gallo character is a pedophile whose hand is literally nailed to the wooden floor and burnt in a scene – this is not for faint Republican or Democrat or neutral hearts. The fruitiness continues: The film even opens with the daughter plucking a bad apple in the field, and Jessica depends on cans of apple butter in the pantry. I suppose subtlety is not a tone this film’s target demographic might understand. In this post-pandemic age, it’s no surprise that a lot of film-makers are turning towards lockdown-style and low-budget survival dramas. But I find it amusing – almost impressive – that religious nuts still have the patience and bandwidth to tell stories that destroy those who stray from faith. Shut In treats the medium as a smokescreen from the get-go; the story remains in submissive service of the messaging. Despite the effort spent on making the ‘thriller’ look edgy and heartfelt, a discerning viewer is bound to get repelled by its aggressive allegories. It’s hard to look past that. Why Jessica even needs to be redeemed is a question storytellers are willing to neglect as long as they’re allowed to stage gimmicky violence. I could have done with more of the daughter outside the pantry, being forced to grow up over a couple of hours, only to evolve into a woman who fears food, babies and the concept of taking orders. But life had other plans. If you do plan to watch Shut In, here is a mental addition you can make to spice up the premise: Jessica is in a same-sex relationship with a nun who’s waiting for her across state borders. The Daily Wire (an Op-America of sorts) will not be pleased, but hey, we all have our own coping mechanisms. Shut In is streaming on Amazon Prime Video

Rahul Desai is a film critic and programmer, who spends his spare time travelling to all the places from the movies he writes about. Read all the  Latest News ,  Trending News ,  Cricket News ,  Bollywood News ,  India News  and  Entertainment News  here. Follow us on  Facebook ,  Twitter  and Instagram