Directed By David Yarovesky
Starring – Bill Skarsgard, Anthony Hopkins, Ashley Cartwright
The Plot – A thief named Eddie (Skarsgard) breaking into a luxury SUV realizes that he has slipped into a sophisticated game of psychological horror.
Rated R for strong violent content/bloody images, adult language throughout, and brief drug use.
POSITIVES
It’s been a while since confined thrillers such as “Phone Booth” or “Buried” reigned supreme at the box office, however there’s plenty about “Locked” that makes an argument for why it may return the subgenre to glory, particularly in the air of its direction from “Brightburn’s” David Yarovesky, who showcases some stimulating style to his claustrophobic confines. When the movie begins, the editing and gritty color grading make it feel like an experimental film from a first time director, however once the movie drifts to its single stage setting inside of this Range Rover SUV that served as 1.2 million dollars to the movie’s rumored 20 million dollar budget, his compelling capabilities as a steering force take shape, with intricate lighting schemes and puzzling cinematography that makes me wonder how the production pulled off these shots while compressed to such stuffy surroundings. One such shot involves the opening sequence inside of the vehicle, once Eddie attempts to steal it, and it’s this manipulated one take that continuously revolves around him in the driver seat, without any windows rolled down or evidential tracks to the vehicle’s roof to indicate how it rode such a smoothly cerebral pattern in and around it. On top of this, the movie’s editing techniques help to maintain urgency and intensity within the depths of the storytelling, between six surveillance cameras placed in each section of the vehicle, but also a variety of angles that may hint that the production might’ve ran through multiple takes of the scenes, in order to craft a psychological dysphoria for what may or may not be real in the mind of a thief who is slowly becoming unglued with the overwhelming adversity that he faces. This obviously intensifies further throughout the film’s few carefully meticulous action sequences, with jaw-dropping carnage candy that revels in devastation without downright embellishing them for campy appeal, but the coherence and detection of the physicality never feels sacrificed by how the editing plays to rhythms of the vehicle, making it a bumpy and turbulent ride that nearly jolts you out of your seat, even within the limitations that such a gimmick might play out. On that aspect, the script from Michael Arlen Ross is also a lot of fun, particularly in the mental chess game between Skarsgard and Hopkins, with two of the most intoxicating personalities in cinema attempting to upend one another in a battle for power. As the movie’s antagonist, Hopkins obviously controls this battle of will’s throughout, however Ross is commanding in throwing Skarsgard’s Eddie a bone of optimism every once in a while, and though he struggles within the adversity of home court advantage to a vehicle that he continuously learns about, the fight for survival does elicit no shortage of anxiety throughout the movie’s brief 88-minute run time, allowing it to not only maintain the attention of its audience with a character study for Eddie that does surprisingly feel moving and earned by film’s end, but also a capitalizing on those moments of erratic impulses, which pay off the pocketed conflicts brilliantly by maximizing the vulnerability factors in Eddie’s plight, breeding an overwhelming anxiety that takes a familiar set-up miles with the journey in front of it. Beyond the advantages of an expressive director and psychologically disarming screenwriter, the film is aided tremendously by the duo of lead performances from Skarsgard and Hopkins, who bounce exceptionally well off of one another, despite rarely ever being in the same place at the same time. Considering these are actors who have donned such evil personas as Pennywise the Clown and Hannibal Lecter, the personality that they exude to the roles are anything but surprising, however it’s Skarsgard’s emerging humanity that help to overcome any preconceived prejudices about his bleakly dire situation, and with boldly conveying windows to the soul that drive anxiousness to feeling as big and enveloping as the sun, Bill channels a weakness for vulnerability that truly inscribe empathy towards the character, proving this to be some of his best screen work aside from donning the make-up of a deranged child-abducting clown. As for Hopkins, there’s little physical acting for a character who is only seen during the final fifteen minutes of the movie, however his vocal tones subscribe to no shortage of tormenting delight that simultaneously brandishes the evil and instability of this faceless captor. If done wrong such as some of Hopkins’ most recent roles that were entirely wrong for him, the moments of comedy earned from his basking of Eddie’s suffering could squander all of the urgency and drama that the film works so hard towards attaining, but Hopkins truly feels locked-in to the sensibilities that he garnered towards an Oscar-winning role as one of cinema’s all-time greatest villains, and when combined with the elegance and sophistication that Hopkins exudes in delivering such menacing lines of imposition, attains a haunting influence to this character that resonates even when he’s not actually speaking directly to his prey.
NEGATIVES
While the script is good at maintaining the entertainment value throughout a briefly limited run time, it stumbles in some of the avenues of exploration where it matters most, particularly the motives for Hopkins’ mystery assailant, which sees the script digging into some unforeseen social commentary. While utilizing an angle might sacrifice the mystique of a voice with prophetic influence over his opposition, I always find it a valuable tool towards learning more about the character, but unfortunately once the film attempts to explain too much is when it feels its most shallow, with an incapability to diverge any deeper than just homeless people are trash, and rich people are ignorant snobs. If I learned nothing about these characters, that would be the route that I was expecting the script to take, particularly in documenting so many financial and commitment troubles for Eddie early on, but the script predictably echoes my preconceived sentiments without anything in the way that feels eye-opening or definitive to the appeal of these respective characters, leaving it feeling like a thinly utilized opportunity that just casually gets away from Ross, instead of giving his audience something original to chew on, and for my money I simply wish he just reveled in more of the mystique of the antagonist, as that was at least slightly more interesting than the constant TV arguments that I hear from Republicans and Democrats. Aside from some missed shots with the movie’s thematic impulses, the resolutions of escape for Eddie’s conflicts are plagued by an abundance of conveniences that require a great deal of suspension of belief in order to go along with them, and I’m not just talking about a finale that occasionally got downright ridiculous. If you go along with Hopkins’ diminished view of the city setting within the movie, then you’ll be forced to endure that there are no cops that respond whenever a vehicle drives erratically on its streets while attempting to mow down people, or even that the vehicle is so heavy that Eddie constantly and feverishly kicking at the windows will do nothing to shake it, in order to draw attention towards it, or that there is no horn in the vehicle for Eddie to also draw attention to it. You simply just have to go along with the situations reinforced in the movie, and though I could overlook these kind of clumsy set-ups, the ending involving JFK’s magic bullet was a bit over the top for me personally, and the film ends at the exact moment where absurdity began to rear its ugly head, taking my final grade down a few points further than I would’ve preferred.
OVERALL
“Locked” is a high-speed, blood-curdling exercise in claustrophobically confined surroundings that never skimps on the adrenaline or anxieties that drive such a dangerously high-stakes mental chess game between two characters from opposite sides of the tracks. With a duo of supercharged performances from Bill Skarsgard and Anthony Hopkins, as well as stunningly stimulating style in the lack of limitations from David Yarovesky’s filming techniques, this thriller is able to maintain its traveling speed over the speedbumps of illogical realities and surface level social commentary, offering an enthralling joy ride that is best experienced with your expectations on, and your mind off.
My Grade: 7.6 or B