Shut In

Plot synopsis:
Steven (Charlie Heaton), is a troubled kid who is being sent to boarding school. While his father, Richard Portman (Peter Outerbridge), is driving him to school, Steven and his father get into a bad argument, and the car swerves into the other lane, causing a head on collision with an eighteen wheeler.
Six months later, Richard Portman has died and Steven has become a vegetable. His stepmother, Mary (Naomi Watts), takes care of his every need. Mary works from home with children and adolescents as a clinical psychologist, giving sessions in the garage right next door to her house.
Mary is informed by a woman named Grace (Crystal Balint), that one of her patients, a little boy named Tom (Jacob Tremblay), who is hearing impaired is going to be transferred to another school in Boston. Mary protests, but there’s nothing she can do about it. Just before leaving, Mary gives a Tom a scarf and hat that once belonged to her stepson Steven. Later that evening, Mary discusses Steven with her therapist, Dr. Wilson (Oliver Platt). She has decided to put Steven in a home to be cared for called Covington because “Steven” is no longer there and he is just a body that she cares for and feeds. Mary expresses guilt for sending her stepson away and the accident which occurred. While bathing she daydreams of drowning Steven in the bathtub.
After bathing, Mary hears sounds in the house and goes to investigate. Once she gets outside, Mary hears glass shattering and her car alarm goes off. In her garage, Mary finds one of her car windows smashed in and Tom fast asleep on the backseat. She brings Tom inside, and while she’s discussing him on the phone, Mary is locked inside her office. When she finally unlocks the door, she finds her front door standing open and Tom is nowhere to be found.
Mary informs the police and they search for Tom. She hears sounds in her house at night and dreams of herself, searching for Tom. Doug Hart (David Cubitt), the father of one of her patients talks about a snow storm that is headed to their area, and asks her out on a date. Mary declines implying that it would be unprofessional.
She continues to hear sounds in the house at night. One night, Mary sees Tom. He comes into her room and claps his hand over her mouth to keep her from screaming. Mary discusses the night’s events with Dr. Wilson, and he tries to convince her that it wasn’t real; attributing it to parasomnia, memories, and the guilt she feels about Steven. Dr. Wilson wants to prescribe her some medication to help her sleep, so he sends a nurse over to Mary’s house to do some blood work.
Mary reconsiders and has dinner with Doug, both of them discussing their respective teenagers. Later on, Mary is frightened by a door slamming. When she investigates, Steven is missing from his bed. She finds a small door to a crawlspace across from the stairway that’s partially open but blocked by furniture. Mary opens it and is grabbed from inside by two small hands and has to fight to close the door.
The next morning she wakes up on the floor. Steven is back in his bed, but has scratches on his face. Dr. Wilson again tries to convince her that she has sleep parasomnia and wants to prescribe antidepressants. Mary gets two invitations to leave her house for the storm, one from her assistant Lucy (Clémentine Poidatz), and another from Doug Hart who visits her. She declines both.
Dr. Wilson contacts her via Skype with her blood work results. Dr. Wilson admonishes Mary for self-medicating because her stepson’s medication is showing up in her blood. Mary denies taking any medication and distractedly and walks away from the computer without ending the call. Dr. Wilson is about to end the call when he looks into Mary’s living room and sees Steven’s empty wheelchair. Right then, Steven walks across the living room, scaring Dr. Wilson. The power and the lights go out in the house and Dr. Wilson loses his computer connection to Mary. Dr. Wilson tries to call Mary, but can’t get through.
Mary is in the basement when the lights go out. She sees Tom in the dark, and when Mary tries to leave the basement, Steven blocks her way and attacks her. She wakes up bound, gagged, and naked in the bathtub and Steven is bathing her. He tells Mary how he woke up in the hospital after the accident with her there. Steven didn’t move or speak so that he could relish in the attention that Mary gave him. He believes that for six months they were happy together just the two of them; until Tom came.
It turns out that Tom wasn’t a ghost. He was alive and living in the crawlspace across from the stairs. Tom saw Steven moving around, so Steven tried to “deal with him,” but before he could, Tom escaped into the crawlspace. Steven blocked him in there hoping he would starve to death. Mary really did see Tom every time he appeared. Steven was keeping her medicated with his medicine so he could walk around at night, increasing her medication since Tom has been there.
Steven medicates Mary so he can “take care” of Tom and leaves her in the bathroom. Mary unties herself and throws up the medication. Dr. Wilson drives to Mary’s house, but wrecks his car on the way. Mary finds both Steven and Tom in the basement, and Mary learns that Steven killed his father on purpose. She knocks Steven out and unties Tom. He runs when Steven wakes up and attacks Mary. She locks Steven in the basement.
Tom and Mary hide in a closet. Steven breaks out of the basement and searches for them. Dr. Wilson arrives as Steven is searching. Steven stabs him. Steven begins hammering. Mary collects Tom from the closet. When Steven goes upstairs, Mary tries to leave and discovers Doug Hart’s dead body in the snow.
Dr. Wilson, still clinging to life, advises Mary not to challenge Steven and to play along with his delusion so she can save herself and Tom. He dies. Steven has nailed all of the windows and doors shut, so Mary breaks a skylight in the roof and Tom climbs out. Steven catches Mary and she plays along with him until she is able to burn him and knock him out. Mary opens one of the doors just as Steven wakes up. They run to the lake with Steven in pursuit. Mary blocks the path to Tom, who is at the end of the pier. Steven pushes her aside and charges after Tom, knocking him into the freezing water. Mary tries to stop him, but he knocks her down again, and begins to drown Tom. Mary grabs the hammer Steven threw down on the pier and bludgeons Steven with it, knocking him into the water and killing him.
The movie ends with Mary driving Tom to school.

Tags: revenge

Review:
Just finished watching Intruders or Shut In. I don't know what the real title is and I don't get why you have to have two different titles for one movie.
Intruders (or "Shut In", as it was when I saw it at the European Premiere) begins as a fairly tame drama about a woman with agoraphobia but takes a sudden and welcome turn for the more exciting and interesting to become a satisfying revenge sub-genre picture.It compares, in spirit, with the recent "No One Lives" and perhaps slightly in plot with "I Spit on your Grave" though, like the former, does not take itself too seriously and certainly doesn't have the vicious nature of the latter.The ending is perhaps a bit predictable and watered down.
But "Intruders" managed to take that theme and do something pretty interesting and a little interested with it.I won't spoil anything but I will say that this isn't just simply a movie about a woman being attacked by men and then turning the tables on them.
It's good that the film makers tried to do some original things but some of them just didn't work.The movie's weak point is definitely the characters.
You want to root for her but a lot of her actions are questionable, and plus one minute she will be a ruthless bad ass and then the next she is a babbling victim.I liked this film, it does enough right to make it an entertaining experience.
Unfortunately it misses the ball on being more then just good, if they would have done a few more things right it probably could have been a pretty great horror film.6/10.
After reading the comments I expected a complete letdown and yet, had quite the fun with it.Intruders is a far better movie than some with the same subject.
Still, the direction of this film is adequate, the setting is sufficient, and overall, this is an all right movie.
Shut In (Intruders) is of the latter kind, attempting to use the uneducated's fear of mental illnesses while utilizing the fear of potential home invasion as back up.Anna (a very nice performance by Beth Riesgraf, delivering a convincing and realistic paranoid and phobic woman) is agoraphobic, and has not left the comfort of her home in 10 years.
When Anna's brother dies, she wholeheartedly offers Danny an extremely generous tip so he can quit his dead end job and follow his dreams.
Little does he know his friend and his friend's brother mean to break into Anna's home during her brother's funeral, and rob her blind.
However, the burglars had no clue about Anna's agoraphobia, and when they break in and find Anna at home - things become complicated.The story involves two coinciding plots.
In order to avoid any possible spoilers, let me stick to what the trailers already reveal - Anna is not as helpless as she appears to be, and her being home turns out to be the least of the robbers' problems.
The way the story plays out is not nearly intense enough to qualify as a revenge flick, and (in my opinion) not remotely frightening or even discomforting enough to be considered Horror.All in all, Shut In isn't anything fancy.
I wasn't too bored watching it, so I guess that's a plus.But overall I can't say that this was very impressive, we've seen it all before (even though the movie does throw a rather surprising twist at us which by all means is not a new one it's usually just delivered more upfront).The characters didn't seem very believable to me either, not necessarily bad acting just very 2-dimensionally written characters that didn't feel real, and things that were supposed to be shocking just came across as the opposite.And it just completely lacks the edge that it clearly was meant to have.It's not absolutely terrible though but it's kinda like when you are thirsty and you'd really like a cold soda, and instead you get a lukewarm one that's gone flat.Has had 3 name-changes I know of since it's release: The Lifetime movie sounding 'Deadly Home' the incredibly unoriginal 'Intruders' and the best one: 'Shut In'...And that's just the ones I know of, it's almost like it decided to change name of it for every bad review it got..
INTRUDERS is a home invasion flick with a few twists to set it apart from the crowd.
One of those films that could exist only in the mind of a scriptwriter rather in the real world.Beth Riesgraf plays Anna, a woman crippled by agoraphobia to the degree that she can't leave her own home when a trio of thugs invade and threaten violence.
The story is punctuated with moments of gruesome violence which are well staged but the overall narrative is hard to get interested in and just sort of plays out in a typical way.Come the end of the film there's been one twist too many and, again, I didn't really buy what was being offered.
It doesn't help that the casting is lacklustre, with Rory Culkin (MEAN CREEK) the only recognisable face here; Riesgraf in particular fails to get the viewer to elicit any sympathy in her character, leaving INTRUDERS an oddly hollow and uninvolving experience overall..
And while it's tough to feel sympathy for characters at times, that doesn't change the fact that this was well thought of.Of course if you already know one of the major twists in the film, you may not appreciate it as much when it comes after the slow beginning.
Why aren't you at your brother's funeral?""Intruders" surprises and disappoints at the same time.
And when three men show up at her house to search the alleged fortune, it's the beginning of a seemingly thrilling home invasion which however takes a sudden turn.
Although it all seemed very promising in the beginning.There are plenty of home-invasion movies.
The film chooses a completely different direction and the home-invasion theme turns into a sadistic torture film with a transforming house.
On the one hand, Shut In (don't mix it up with the homonym film starring Naomi Watts) offers a moderately interesting psychological basis which makes it better than other "home invasion" movies; on the other hand, the screenplay relies too much on coincidences and convenient revelations, while making trap with the development of the characters when the story threatens to stop.
I liked the movie at the beginning but not much at the ending scenes , however i appreciate the brilliant submitted efforts especially that 'Beth Riesgraf' made in attempt to portray the 'Anna Rook' psychopathic character , I can't deny that the movie was very suspenseful and exciting but nevertheless you will feel tiny holes and flaws in both sides , the character and the plot , with regard to the character i couldn't discern or distinguish her psychological problem yet , is she a psychopath or sociopath or just an introvert photosensitive person , you will understand when you see the movie , but even if the director intention was to make a psychopathic character i'd like to notify him that he was good but not good enough ' i don't really know who's to blame but there's an obvious incomplete side of the psychopathic character that she tried to portray to us , and concerning the plot aspect i think it wasn't something new for me , it wasn't really a unique scenario that worth the 10 out 10 vote , that's why i gave it only 7 out of ten just for the brilliant efforts of the actors .
Suffering from severe agoraphobia, a woman is forced to stay inside her house when a trio of intruders break into her house looking for money, only to realize she may be more dangerous than she appeared and are forced to play her deadly games to get away alive.This here is quite a lame and rather unimpressive home invasion effort.
Though the twist in the second half is quite nice, that as well doesn't make this one any better with the fact that it's just not filled with any real kind of true horror elements during this section as it's mainly just a rather lame series of scenes of them trying to break out of their entrapment and her observing on them from afar, leaving their interactions to be just truly bland, weak and unimpressive for the most part.
I've seen the trailer for 'Intruders' sometime last month, and based off that trailer I was under the impression that the film was a sorta like some bad guys enter the wrong house and get more than they bargained for, a lot more.
INTRUDERS first introduces us to Anna (Beth Riesgraf) and her terminally ill brother Conrad, (Timothy McKinney).
His death leaves Anna alone in their enormous house, where three criminals (Jack Kesy, Martin Starr, and Joshua Mikel) soon break in.
Anna was supposed to be at Conrad's funeral, but she suffers from agoraphobia, resulting in her inability to leave her home.
If, like me, you decide to give it a watch anyway, be prepared for 90 minutes of complete and utter crap.The plot is silly - you can probably gather that just by reading the synopsis, but even I was surprised at just how ridiculous it got.
This movie fails to keep it interesting.Unless you're a fan of cheap, silly horror flicks, then 'Intruders' or 'Shut In' is definitely one to avoid..
UK title - Shut In. Three men break into a large house looking for a stash of cash, thinking that it's occupant, Anna, is away at her brother's funeral.
Certainly not a typical home invasion movie, this one turns into something more akin to say "Saw".
'Intruders' (or 'Shut In' as it is also known) is a difficult film to discuss without revealing the twists and turns of the plot; suffice it to say though, the movie is a triumph of production design with thoughtful sound mixing often keeping one on edge; to say that the film makes the best of its single location setting would be a massive understatement.
Beth Riesgraf is reasonably effective in the lead role too and of the three intruders, Martin Starr offers a very compelling performance as the most violent and unpredictable member who will not even let innocent birds stand in his way..
A Good Movie with a Terrible EndingIt is like some One started making a Great Dinner, carefully added the spices and flavors, cooked for right time, put all effort into it and when it is ready, simply Peed on it.What a Great Movie ....all the way until a Terrible Ending.Honestly, while I was watching this movie, I thought its a very good 8 Star Movie.Ending was so terrible that I had to give it a 4 Star..
I would have to say that I was entertained by this movie and watched it through until the end.
I didn't really like the ending, I could thing of a few different ways to end the movie that would have been more satisfying.
There are Thrills and Suspense that Build to a Climax that some Find Unfulfilling.But it's Worth a Watch for sure because of some Good Acting and a Twist on the Home Invasion Genre that is Set in a Distressing House Full of Horrors and Horrifying People..
I love that simplicity primed in developing this movie contrarily to current Hollywood stupid trend looking to create extraordinary scenes when most of times a simplicity would have made it just as good.However, the title of my post says it all.
Shut In (AKA Intruders): Anna (Beth Riesgraf) suffers from chronic agoraphobia.
In Intruders, a severely agoraphobic young lady (Beth Riesgraf) is menaced by three baddies in search of cash somewhere in her home.
This Intruders contains a devilish twist about midway through, and suddenly this isn't a movie about a damsel in distress but something wholly different – and much more interesting.Anna (Riesgraf) lives in an old house with her brother Conrad, who's quickly dying of some disease.
After all, this is Anna's home turf.I found Intruders to be fairly brilliant, with a neat twist on a standard plot that ultimately transforms the film from a pile of predictability to a tsunami of terror and guessing..
So if you don't want to read them, just know that I really liked this movie, and highly recommend it.SPOILERS!!!I enjoy watching and reading about strong women.
I knew there was more to Anna, thanks to the description, but I was afraid she was going to be timid throughout the whole movie.
But when she started killing, I saw there was nothing to worry about.Beth Riesgraf's (Anna) acting is superb.
The casting people must of saw her there too, because she does a great job of looking sweet, and then you see a bit of something not quite right appear.The movie was a bit slow at first, but they had to establish some back story, and dramatically show you photos of Anna and her dad, so you knew something was up with it.
Three thieves break into a house believing the place to be empty while its owner Anna (Beth Riesgraf) attends the funeral of her brother.
When they run into Anna, the gang decide that they cannot allow her to live, since she has seen their faces, but killing her isn't as easy as they thought, the house holding more than a few unpleasant surprises for the burglars.Intruders (AKA Shut In) starts off in standard home invasion mode, but takes an unexpected turn when Anna's house is revealed to be loaded with gadgets and secret rooms, the agoraphobe able to keep track of the thieves via hidden cameras.
And while watching this I cannot help thinking how brilliant the other one is.The woman's past, the little set up that her and her brother had is so unusual and feels a little contrived and that is my major annoyance.The acting is good, the script seems okay, the movie is well set out and for the most part I really enjoy it.
I randomly saw this movie while watching TV at home.
- the story of a woman who overcame PTSD & agoraphobia by killing some bad guys." I would have given this movie a 1 star but I really liked the woman who played Anne.
But if you want to watch a real horror movie, skip this one..
Adam Schindler has made an impressive directorial debut with his unusual home invasion thriller "Intruders" featuring a largely anonymous cast and a story that unfolds in a single setting.
A twentysomething woman, Anna Rook (Beth Riesgraf of "Scorcher"), hasn't set foot outside her family home since her father died ten years ago.
A trio of violent thugs, J.P. Henson (Jack Kesy of "Empire Gypsy"), sadistic Perry Cuttner (Martin Starr of "Superbad"), and Vance (Joshua Mikkel of "Terminator Genisys") break into her home since they figured that Anna would be at her brother's funeral.
Typically, home invasion movies present a suspenseful situation that the damsel-in-distress must get out of if she plans to survive.
Anna suffers from agoraphobia, and has been living in her house without leaving for the last 10 years.
Rather than the film being an all out horror, Shut In tries to turn the age old tropes on their head by using them to the protagonists benefit.So where you'd usually be shouting at the screen 'get out of the house' or 'don't run up the stairs', here, Anna has no choice because of her phobia.But that's where the originality ends with the film, and it's back to basics with your predictable house of traps and a trio of bad guys who all have the atypical personalities you'd find in any old horror film gathering dust on a bargain shelf.Which is a real shame, because they have a wonderful character in Anna, never becoming the true psychotic that the film threatens her to be, she remains to have the aura of an innocent little girl throughout the film, and although the film connotates to some sort of childhood abuse in the first act, it's never really explained enough to be an integral part of her psyche.Some of the camera work is clever, especially using CCTV and shadows, and there is a slight twist I the third act, as to why the house is almost 'Home Alone-esque'.My advice is, try to see this movie without knowing to much about it, you'll probably get more out of it, and forgive it for backing away from such a wonderful premise.Worth watching, but it will leave you a little disappointed..
Beth Riesgraf is excellent as agoraphobic Anna, who has spent years looking after her dying brother Conrad.
Their inevitable demises are, if anything, not horrible enough.The house, in which the whole thing is set, provides an effective maze-like prison for them all as they begin to realise that Anna's intimate knowledge of the place has its advantages, and the building, it seems, has secrets of its own.This is another 'home invasion' project, where the comforts of a familiar environment are turned on their head upon the arrival of uninvited 'others'.
Last year I was tempted to buy a good home invasion movie on DVD to treat myself.
'Intruders' at first glance just seems like any other average home invasion movie.
One of my Favorite Home invasion movies.
The main star being agoraphobic was fun to watch and how the movie turned from her seeming to be scared for her life and a helpless pretty young woman, to at times a heartless in control maniacal crazy person.
I watch basically only Horror/Thriller/Drama/Supernatural movies.
This movie gave me that feeling.I did kind of want to see Rory Culkin's character not leave at the end or leave with the Lead as he seemed to have a crush on her.
In the end I would of liked to have seen her struggle still to leave the house after setting the fire.