Earlier than my screening of “Locked,” director David Yarovesky (“Brightburn,” “Nightbooks”) made a shock look to thank the press and the particular company in attendance, as this may be his first time watching the film with a crowd outdoors of associates and colleagues. “After I began making this film, I can’t inform you how many individuals stated ‘Oh cool, that is completely a streaming film,’ […] so it is surreal as a result of if you stroll into an AMC and see it up on the display screen like this, you do not know that it is a tiny indie film.” And he is proper. “Locked” is the kind of indie thriller that was a movie show’s bread and butter — low-budget/high-return seat-fillers like Kurt Russell’s “Breakdown” or the Jeff Bridges and Tommy Lee Jones automobile, “Blown Away” — that are actually instantly dumped onto a streamer and misplaced to the void of algorithms. It is stated typically within the wake of the trade’s pivot to relying on huge franchises whose success is kneecapped by irresponsibly enormous budgets, however they actually do not make ’em like this anymore.
Happily, “Locked” is a reminder of a bygone period, for good and unhealthy. The most recent addition to the canon of “White Individuals Did What? They Acquired Caught The place?” subgenre of movies (coined by Nirupam Dhakal aka HugeAsMammoth) “Locked” sees Invoice Skarsgård buying and selling in his Rely Orlok mustache for a Pete Davidson makeover to play Eddie, a petty prison who shortly realizes he is damaged into the mistaken luxurious automobile after he finds himself trapped within a boobytrapped automobile owned by a person named William (performed by Sir Anthony Hopkins). This doubtlessly lethal automobile can solely exist because of a ludicrously rich octogenarian with a Soiled Harry-shaped chip on his shoulder and approach an excessive amount of time on his fingers.
Produced by horror legend Sam Raimi and a remake of the Argentinian movie “4×4,” your mileage could differ with “Locked,” an intimate piece with devoted performances and a weirdly relatable thematic core, however thrills leaving a lot to be desired.
Locked is each too restrained and too excessive
As soon as Eddie is within the fancy, one-of-a-kind Dolus (it is a modified Land Rover), the movie has to search out methods to creatively hold watching one man trapped in a automobile an entertaining expertise. For essentially the most half, “Locked” is profitable. In contrast to “4×4,” the movie features a sequence of safety cameras that often let the viewers see Eddie from William’s perspective, but it surely typically feels distracting and interrupts the stress being constructed fantastically from Skarsgård’s efficiency. Through the years he is confirmed to be one of the crucial endlessly watchable performers, so disrupting his stream turns into irritating.
Moreover irritating is the movie’s restraint relating to its social politics. Each Eddie and William interact in debates about systemic neglect, the failures of the prison justice system, poverty, and generational divides, but it surely would not swing onerous sufficient. Comparability is the thief of pleasure, however “4×4” expands the battle outward and brings the controversy to the streets (actually), whereas “Locked” retains it firmly interpersonal between William and Eddie. The automobile acts as a microcosm of society, however by holding it so intimate, it additionally loses the nuance of how sophisticated these conversations can turn out to be when factoring within the actuality that social teams aren’t monolithic. Contemplating the present political local weather, the sanitization typically left me feeling as if the movie irresponsibly dealt with such critical themes.
However on the similar time, “Locked” is a reasonably unserious film [complimentary], with over-the-top violence and some scenes of shockingly graphic gore that can shortly remind the viewers that it is a Sam Raimi manufacturing. It is right here that the film actually picks up steam, with a terrifying chase scene that includes William remotely controlling the automobile to search out Eddie’s younger daughter on her approach house from faculty serving because the stand-out set piece of your complete movie. The stress is so efficient that you just overlook that moments earlier, we needed to hearken to Hopkins weaponize the phrase “triggered.”
Had the movie embraced its gonzo aspect extra and dedicated totally to political satire exploitation, this might have had the potential to be a sleeper hit. As a lot because it pains me to say it, “Locked” feels destined to be the longer term recipient of a /Movie article with a title like “This Forgotten 2025 Thriller is Discovering a New Life on Netflix” (like this one), regardless of it being, all issues thought-about, a reasonably enjoyable time on the films.
Anthony Hopkins will get his kicks tormenting Invoice Skarsgård
“Locked” lives and dies by the performances of a trapped-in-the automobile Invoice Skarsgård and the taunting voice of Anthony Hopkins over the automobile’s audio system, and it is evident that the 2 are having an absolute blast. Hopkins’ William particularly appears like he is genuinely having a discipline day tazing Skarsgård’s Eddie anytime he drops an f-bomb, and Skarsgård effortlessly convinces the viewers that he is one mistaken transfer away from being killed for your complete runtime. When Hopkins lastly reveals up within the flesh, it is a welcome reminder that not solely is he probably the greatest to ever do it, however being just a few years shy of 90 hasn’t slowed him down a bit.
However surprisingly, the stress of the movie is undercut a bit by how tough it’s to narrate to William. Whereas Eddie is, on paper, the one within the “mistaken” for breaking into the automobile, within the present American local weather, it is unimaginable to see him as something aside from the sufferer. William is the embodiment of rich outdated individuals complaining concerning the neighborhood altering on NextDoor, and even when it is revealed that he suffered a tragic loss by the hands of criminals who went unpunished, it is onerous to not suppose, “Previous males will actually flip an costly automobile right into a ‘Noticed’ entice as an alternative of going to remedy, huh?” A minimum of with Jigsaw, we understood his crimes to be a last-ditch effort. William is simply sociopathic because of failing to cope with his personal trauma. His resolution to torture Eddie is not focused at him, particularly. He is as an alternative forcing this random man to bear the brunt of his misdirected anger. William skilled a tragic loss as a result of systemic failures of our authorities and judicial system, and as an alternative of remembering who the actual enemy is, has determined to make it anybody he views as lesser-than’s private downside. And therein lies the true energy of “Locked.”
Aren’t all of us simply “poor individuals caught within the wealthy man’s boobytrapped automobile with no management over our environment” of life?
/Movie Score: 4 out of 10
“Locked” opens in theaters on March 21, 2025.
