SHUT IN [2022] (REVIEW)

Dir. D.J. Caruso

Reviewer. Martyn Wakefield

SHUT IN managed to be the answer of what would happen if THE STRANGERS meets BURIED as Rainey Qualley fights to defend her children from their high father and his paedophilic partner.

Yes, SHUT IN works best if you are a parent as it's literally your worst fear and having being trapped away from the defensive nature of a mother can be, and yet listening to what is happening, is genuinely the stuff of nightmares.

It's an interesting perspective and one that feels extremely uncomfortable as a parent but no less terrifying as a horror fan and Qualley does a fantastic job of portraying the danger and fear mostly on her own locked in a cupboard.

Although the film is mostly in the confines of four very small walls, the supporting cast are horrifically villainess in what is portrayed through words alone without so much as a few seconds of (very uncomfortable) damage actually on film.

D.J. Caruso's film, written by Melanie Toast, manages to give away very little yet still make skins crawl in a film that manages to define true terror yet feel so grounded in reality, and surely the makes it the greatest horror film of all.