Scorsese Horror Flick Borders Mediocrity

Rating: 4/10 (18 February 2010)

Shutter Island, Scorsese's fourth film featuring Leonardo DiCaprio, recounts the unnerving of a U.S. Marshal with his arrival at the Ashecliffe Hospital for the Criminally Insane to investigate the disappearance of an inmate. The film is categorized as a horror film but falls more appropriately under the rubric, psychological thriller. Despite an all-star cast and a variety of technically adept cinematic features, the film falls short for a Scorsese work and even shorter for a horror film.
Teddy Daniels, the protagonist played by DiCaprio, is partnered with Chuck Aule, (Mark Ruffalo) in this investigation. Daniels' own psychologically debilitated state is made apparent through recurring graphic flashbacks of his involvement in WWII and through hallucinations of his recently deceased wife. The film opens with Daniels vomiting on the ferry destined for the island, the camera following him under deck as he tries to gather himself. Such vulnerability does not serve him well at the outset and beyond and suggests possibly that he might some day be greeted as an inmate himself. Indeed, upon entry into the facility, he is welcomed by a setting of low ceilings and chains as if, in time, he might find himself, given this introductory psychological makeup, restrained by them. Such symbolism is only the beginning of what makes the outcome of the film remarkably predictable...
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