5.4 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 2.0 | |
Overall | 2.0 |
Shut In is a heart-pounding thriller starring Naomi Watts as Mary, a widowed child psychologist who lives an isolated existence in rural New England with her paralysed son Stephen (Charlie Heaton). When a young boy Mary is treating goes missing during a fierce snowstorm, and is later presumed dead, she becomes convinced that he has returned as a ghost to haunt them.
Starring: Naomi Watts, Jacob Tremblay, Oliver Platt, David Cubitt, Clémentine PoidatzHorror | 100% |
Thriller | 35% |
Mystery | 16% |
Psychological thriller | 15% |
Drama | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.39:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
English SDH, Spanish
Blu-ray Disc
Two-disc set (1 BD, 1 DVD)
UV digital copy
DVD copy
Slipcover in original pressing
Region A (locked)
Movie | 2.0 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 1.0 | |
Overall | 2.0 |
One of the most fun memories I have of my by now long history with home theater equipment is when I purchased my very first (stereo!) television and a VCR, also stopping by a rental place on the way back from the store to pick up Dead of Winter, a kind of on the fly choice I got to watch as a kind of christening of my incredible new high tech equipment (that said with tongue planted firmly in cheek, of course). Dead of Winter was frankly no great shakes, but its story of a vulnerable female in an isolated location battling all sorts of nemeses, whether real or imagined, was fun and even occasionally fairly tense (especially one scene involving a missing finger). Despite its flaws, Dead of Winter might seem to be High Art when compared to Shut In, another film which posits a hapless female in an isolated location dealing with both psychological issues and perhaps things going bump in the night that are not manifestations of her own troubled mind. How an actress of Naomi Watts’ merits got mixed up in this predictable and resolutely unscary mess is anyone’s guess, but here she is, on hand as psychologist Mary Portman, a woman dealing with the horrendous aftermath of a car accident which left her husband dead and her son Steven (Charlie Heaton) paralyzed and in what amounts to a persistent vegetative state.
Shut In is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.39:1. Shot digitally with Red Epic cameras by Yves Bélanger (Dallas Buyers Club, Wild, Brooklyn), Shut In has a few moments of an extremely warm palette in the opening vignette, but then intentionally exploits cooler tones for virtually the rest of the film. Contrast is strong, allowing subtle gradations in both whites (as in the voluminous snow drifts surrounding the focal home) or blacks (as in some of the darkened spooky spaces within the home itself) to provide generally excellent detail levels. As is discussed in the brief production design featurette included on the Blu-ray as a supplement, the interior of the home features cool blues and greens and often scenes within the interior rooms aren't brightly lit. All of this leads to minor deficits in detail levels at times, though a surplus of close-ups helps to alleviate some of those concerns.
Shut In's DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix isn't especially subtle, and it certainly isn't innovative (within the annals of startle effects and the like), but it's often incredibly effective, with nice rumbles of LFE providing subliminal angst and good sudden eruptions of effects from discrete channels that help to keep the listener as unbalanced as Mary appears to be. Nathaniel Méchaly's score has some good surround presence as well. Dialogue is presented cleanly and there's some decent ambient differentiation offered to elements like the Skype interactions that take place.
It's hard to really fault Shut In for being patently ludicrous when so many contemporary horror films tend to be, but what's disappointing about this effort is the caliber of on screen performer left to flounder amid some ragged screenwriting and direction. With a limited number of potential outcomes (including culprit, if any), Shut In just doesn't misdirect well enough to offer many surprises. Technical merits are strong for those considering a purchase.
2015
Extended Director's Cut
2018
Limited Edition to 3000 - SOLD OUT
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