MOVIE REVIEW: LOCKED

 

When Eddie breaks into a luxury SUV, he steps into a deadly trap set by a self-proclaimed vigilante who delivers his own brand of twisted justice. Trapped inside the car, Eddie soon discovers escape is an illusion and survival is a nightmare.

Director: David Yarovesky

Cast: Bill Skarsgård, Anthony Hopkins, Ashley Cartwright, Michael Eklund, Navid Charkhi

Release Date: March 21, 2025

Genre: Horror, Thriller

Rated R for strong violent content/bloody images, language throughout, and brief drug use.

Runtime: 1h 35m

Review:

Locked is a claustrophobic, single location thriller that gets the most mileage out of the conceit thanks in large part to strong turns from Bill Skarsgård and Anthony Hopkins.  David Yarovesky's slickly directed film feels like a spiritual successor to Joel Schumacher's 2002 film, Phone Booth with its static setting, flawed protagonist and malevolent, mostly unseen, antagonist.  The script provides a handful of blunt discussions about societal decay and class disparity which are intriguing ideas but done in such a heavy-handed manner that they feel inorganic to the story.  Discussions of Tolstoy's War & Peace and Karl Marx coming from Skarsgård's street urchin, deadbeat dad feels more than a little inauthentic regardless of how committed he is to the role.  Thankfully, Skarsgård is allowed more than enough time to overlook that bit of heavy-handed messaging by delivering an intriguing turn as the unlucky loser to step into Anthony Hopkins' twisted trap.  He's onscreen for nearly the entire film's runtime with little to react to outside of planted torture devices hidden in the vehicle and Hopkins' disembodied voice.  Skarsgård, who looks like Pete Davidson clone here, manages to keep the whole thing afloat by having his character go through a variety of emotional states as he's subjected to a variety of torturous situations that increasingly become more ludicrous.  Hovering over it all is Anthony Hopkins' dying one percenter with a grudge, William.  Hopkins gives the character a noticeable spark even though the character's motivations are rather clichéd by the time it’s all said and done.  He manages to mine every bit of gravitas he can out of the role even though he's offscreen for 90% of the time.  Sadly, by the time he shows up onscreen, the script and David Yarovesky struggle to close out the story in a satisfactory manner relying instead on a jarring ending that feels like they pulled the emergency brake on the film once they couldn't land on a more meaningful.    

B-