It may come as a surprise, or not. I bet a few people know that I stay away from anything remotely related to the horror genre. This specifically means, that horror books, articles and especially films, are very much not my cup of tea.
What a lot of people may not know, is that I also don’t like thrillers. Like the ones packed with nerve-racking suspense that makes your heart thump in a staccato beat, your adrenaline is high and your eyes are bulging out of your sockets(at least for me), but it’s all just a film. And yeah, I don't like them as well.
However, when I stumbled on this movie, I couldn’t look away. I’m not a fan of watching trailers before I see the actual film but I read a bit of the synopsis and I was hooked. I knew it would be a twist from the light, easy plot lines that I’ve been watching recently. So when I clicked on play, I was fully prepared to be swept away. And that’s exactly what happened.
Locked In (2023)
The movie, directed by Nour Wazzi, begins with a nurse reading the alphabet to someone who seems incapable of moving. She reads these letters from a transparent board in a way that makes us understand in a few seconds that she’s trying to elicit some form of response from this patient with the way the patient blinks when some letters are called, or is it getting information? When she hits the third letter, she gasps.
“Someone tried to murder you?”
The movie makes use of in finis res plot technique, starting the narration from the end and then to the beginning. After Nurse Mackenzie, a neuro-clinical nurse in charge of Katherine, the patient, is done examining her, she meets Lina, adopted daughter and daughter-in-law Katherine and after explaining the situation of Katherine, boiling down to being in a vegetative state, she asks Lina to tell her Katherine’s story. And that’s where it begins.
Lina moves into the Rowling Manor to live with Katherine after her mother, Katherine’s childhood friend, dies. Katherine takes custody of Lina and becomes her legal guardian. But this gorgeous, bubbling actress has the rug swept from under her feet when her husband dies leaving the entirety of his wealth to Jamie, her stepson. And nothing at all for her.
Young Lina does all in her power to please Katherine and make her love her by taking care of Jamie, who’s sickly and prone to seizures so that Katherine can have a free life. Katherine appreciates this and plans a meeting with a movie director for her big comeback into the movie industry, leaving Lina and Jamie in the manor. The two, that night, promise to protect and always be there for each other.
Time passes and there’s a shift. Jamie and Lina have grown to be dependent in some way on each other. Their bond grows tremendously and they tie the knot much to the displeasure of Katherine who now sees Lina as a scheming gold-digger trying to usurp her position as lady of the manor. She doesn’t hide her mean words and Jamie, in a bid to punish her for stealing the spotlight at his wedding, falls into a fit of seizures.
This is where we meet Dr. Robert, Jamie’s doctor. He shows concern towards Lina and encourages her to live her life freely and have fun. Lina, unwittingly moved by someone dangling the promise of freedom to her, falls for the Doctor’s charms and soon enough, they begin to have an affair.
However, as the story continues, the doctor’s particular interest in Lina proves to be more than meets the eye. In an enrapturing plot of twists and turns, mistakes begin to be made and secrets begin to uncover in an excitingly devastating way for the family. The pressure mounts to a boiling point until it.... tips over.
Review and Rating
I don’t know much about the director of this movie but because of how stellar this was to me, I looked her up. There was a lot that impressed me about this movie. I had high hopes and I wasn’t disappointed at all. First off, I love plots that aren’t chronological. Stories that begin from the middle, or better still from the end are much more appealing to me than the linear plots that run from the beginning to the end. So, the fact that this movie started the way it did was already a plus for me.
There was wonderful character development. Building from the protagonist, her life and her story. As I’ve watched a lot of mid films recently, I can’t begin to emphasize how necessary it is for the characters to be well developed so that we can be immersed in the emotions, feel with them, laugh with them, cry with them. And this movie, for the most part, did justice to that.
It may or may not be a big point but I think the characterization in this movie was apt. Great actors were chosen to deliver and they interpreted their roles with finesse. As a point of note, it’s always a secret delight to me when a character who is introduced to us as she’s young becomes grown and the character used has similar physical features of, in essence, looks like the younger version. It’s a teensy detail that may not be talked about a lot but many of us look forward to that blend. Every good movie pays attention to details like that. And I like that Locked In wasn’t an exception.
On the point of pacing, it gave this slow-burn kind of feeling that I look forward to, in books and movies. They let us assimilate what was going on in a way that wasn’t a drag and also wasn’t rushed. I followed steadfastly every scene for loopholes in that regard and I was gratefully, disappointed. Although it felt rushed at some point and looked like everything was going too fast, it was at necessary points in the movie, where anything other than that would make the film considerably unsatisfactory.
I may be tempted to gush about this movie a lot so I’ll stop now and just say that it was refreshing. Do I admit to screaming one or two times, yes I do. I just couldn’t help it and I may have shut out the sound a couple of times as well but that goes to show that the genre -thriller- was adequately embodied in a way that was believable enough and left me with a pleasant sigh in the end. I’ve finally watched something worthwhile. Giving this movie a resounding 8.5 out of 10. And I recommend it as well to any person looking for a refreshing thriller with good storyline.
Jhymi🖤
