Encierro

This forgettable Netflix thriller is poorly directed, acted and written that I felt ' locked in' and couldn't do anything to turn it off.

Laura would have loved to have tortured me with this junk!

It's unthrilling in its storytelling- no tension, suspense or action so it doesn't grab the audience from the beginning.

It's look is purely TV , a unfocused ,dimly lit splurge- that midway through Laura thought she was watching a TV show by asking" how many episodes is this?" The only thing frightening and creepy is Famke Janssen's face job!

It's also hilarious to see a hospital utterly devoid of other people/patients: day or night- believe me there's always someone about.

When Netflix finance films for their network - Reptile being a prime example, they do it with style and finesse, here it's tedious, bottom of the barrel mid 90s direct to DVD schlock.

Locked In is generically a modern Gothic story. British, manor, orphans, illness, love affairs, duplicitous characters, plots within plots, etc. All of that, the movie does well.

Do we need another Gothic mystery of orphaned child becoming entwined with a decaying family and its manor? Probably not. Do the actors move past the 2 dimensional nature of their characters? Decidedly no. Does the story line bring anything new or ingenious to the story? A resounding no.

Part of the issue I see is that the main character is the young orphaned girl and her movement into this family and the machinations of the plot. She's not that interesting of a character. And the narrow focus that the film takes toward her shuts out the other characters from being able to provide much richness to the story.

This harkens to the great movie and story of Rebbeca in many ways. But that film allowed other characters room to play, and the uncertainty of motivations and conniving increased the sense of tension and dread. As a copy or comparison of that, this films decidedly missed the mark. As a display of a Gothic story, it does all right.

In this movie Lina is adopted by Kathrine - her dead mother's best friend - to live in a mansion that represents all the luxury and glamour Kathrine is used to but recently lost, as upon her husband's death everything was inherited by Jamie - Kathrine's young stepson.

Will this strange family dynamic prevail or will it all turn into a tragedy?

The movie has good vibes but the story was not strong enough and felt like the characters tension wasn't played out well. It was lacking chemistry and often felt like they all had different ideas about how they should portray the characters.

It was anticlimatic, no big revelations or twists, everything was predictable and well, boring.

It felt like they tried too hard to make it scary or thrilling but failed at the attempt even though they had all these amazing scenery but ultimately failed to give it cinematic justice.

To start with IMDB need to adjust their synopsis of this movie, no way is it an horror movie, this was the only reason I watched it.

It's a mystery and thriller and that's about it.

I am going to give this Netflix movie a five star rating, while I did enjoy it, this movie had some real plot holes and some slap in the face scenes which could have been filmed better and tighter to make to movie more nerve racking.

The twists and turns more or less were done properly and left you guessing most of the way through, I also liked the way the film went back and forth from now and the past.

What I thought was a bit silly and could have been done better were scenes like the horse chase scene, some of the back and forth scenes near the end went on for to long.

I also have seen reviews in which some people wanted a better finish to the film, which I get.

This film also went from the doctor is the bad guy, no he's not, the young girl is. Sometimes this was done well, then sometimes you thought get on with it.

A mixed bag but I did enjoy it, would I watch it again, no I wouldn't, would I recommend it, no I don't think so.

Worth a watch.

Nurse Nicky Mackenzie (Anna Friel) gets a new patient, Katherine (Famke Janssen) who is unable to communicate due to her injuries. She starts talking to Katherine's visitor Lina (Rose Williams). 13 years earlier after the death of Lina's mother, Katherine had become her guardian. At the time, Katherine was a rich and famous Hollywood actress. Her son Jamie suffers from periodic seizures. 3 years earlier, Lina is marrying Jamie (Finn Cole). Dr. Robert Lawrence (Alex Hassell) is treating Jamie.

This feels more like an old timey soapy romance melodrama mystery. I like all these actors. I am slightly intrigued with their characters. I would change one thing for sure. Nicky Mackenzie should be a cop investigating Katherine's incident. As a nurse, she adds no tension to the story. As a cop, she could uncover some sort of foul play and the audience would be more invested in the mystery.