SHUT IN (2016)

A variation on Wait Until Dark in which all the characters appear to have undergone lobotomies, Shut In manages a colossal waste of considerable acting talent in a very short (though painfully long) running time. With better writing, it could have been a triumphant return to form for Naomi Watts, who was brilliant in Mulholland Drive and even in Children of the Corn IV, and who might have soared in this kind of role. The movie’s second lead, Charlie Heaton, is fresh off a star-making turn on Netflix’s “Stranger Things.” Featured is Jacob Tremblay, so heartwrenching as the young Jack in Room. And then there's Oliver Platt, one of the quirkiest character actors there is.

These top actors wander through the film like unfortunate Beckett characters who know they must go, but cannot. They're hamstrung by a screenplay that never ventures beyond the bounds of the expected. As good an actress as Watts is, she never convinces us her character is dumb enough to stay locked in a closet when deadly forces (the nature of which, like a good film citizen, I will not reveal) pursue her in her own house. As good an actor as Platt is, he never convinces us he's dumb enough to try to rescue her himself before the police arrive. Assuming that Shut In takes place in a world where The Shining exists, he should think, "I know what happened to Scatman Crothers. I'll wait for some backup."

Mary Portman (Watts) is a child psychologist who has been caring for her catatonic stepson Stephen (Heaton) for six months since an accident left him completely paralyzed. Suddenly she begins to suspect a presence in her house that might be threatening her and the defenseless Stephen. It may have something to do with the deaf patient of hers (Tremblay) who has recently gone missing. With an ice storm coming, she finds herself trapped in her house with Stephen, and possibly with something malevolent.

I won't reveal anything more, not because I don't want to spoil the surprise but because the movie leaves me with nothing else to reveal, really. There's essentially only one more piece to the puzzle, and it's so thuddingly obvious that I kept expecting screenwriter Christina Hodson to have one more rug to pull out. Surely this can't be the climactic twist, I thought. It is. Compare it to M. Night Shyamalan's twist near the end of The Visit, in which the reveal was a genuine surprise, built naturally from what came before it, and framed the climactic third act grippingly. In Shut In the surprise is revealed only because the movie is almost over, and gives no explanation for the odd behavior of certain characters early in the film.

Shut In is reminiscent of The House at the End of the Street, another slapped-together thriller hinged on an underwhelming twist and wielding a lead actress it doesn't deserve (Jennifer Lawrence). It is not as dumb as that movie, but it is almost as dumb, which is dumb enough. Ouija: Origin of Evil, still in theaters, has a sillier name but is a much more inventive and fun thriller. Those looking for a good scare should seek that film instead.

1/2 out of ****

30 NIGHTS OF NIGHT, Night 1: 10 RILLINGTON PLACE (1971)

It's odd that 10 Rillington Place, a true-crime thriller that is bloodless but no less brutal than any of its type, isn't widely celebrated alongside Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer, The Silence of the Lambs, and The Night of the Hunter as one of the best portrayals of an honest sociopath on screen. The sociopath, played by a calm, soothing Richard Attenborough, is an ordinary man of extraordinary cruelty named John Christie, who has every appearance of a being a kind and helpful neighbor. What Christie did to his neighbors, Tim and Beryl Evans, is so terrible that it's considered one of Britain's most horrific crimes.

Tim (John Hurt) is a not-so-intelligent working class man who barely makes enough money to support his wife Beryl (Judy Geeson, bright and unsuspecting) and their newborn daughter. When Tim and Beryl learn that they have another baby on the way, Tim enlists the help of Christie, who pretends to have medical experience, to perform an illegal abortion.

What follows is historical record. Christie murdered Beryl during the operation and convinced Tim to help him hide the body. Christie later returned and murdered their baby. Tim was convicted of the murder of his wife and executed. Later the truth was found after Christie killed four more women, including his wife. Tim's conviction was overturned posthumously, and the death penalty was abolished in Britain.

The movie follows the events with disturbing earnestness. Much of the dialogue is taken from the record itself. A scene in which Tim confesses a phony story to the police, coached by Christie, is starkly real and heartbreaking, and recited by Hurt with a rehearsed manner combined with an irrepressible tremor. There is no actor more apt at portraying inner pain than Hurt; it's why he was so believable as the alien popped from his stomach.

The director, Richard Fleischer, takes a documentary-style approach. Scenes are shot straightforwardly; the horror is allowed to linger without relief. Fleischer's prolific and resume is made up mostly of family and adventure films--The Vikings, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Doctor Dolittle, Fantastic Voyage--but amid his high-profile fare are a select few particularly taut thrillers. (He also directed The Boston Strangler, a similarly-toned procedural which is an overlooked prototype of Zodiac.)

This movie was cited as a footnote in Attenborough's career after his death a couple of years ago. It ought to have been more. Attenborough is famous for playing gentle, morally conflicted characters in films like The Great Escape, Seance on a Wet Afternoon, and Jurassic Park, and here that same gentility masks a real, true-life monster.

*** 1/2 out of ****