TL;DR – It was a good scenario, but it never felt like they had a good handle on what they wanted to talk about.

Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene.

Disclosure – I paid to watch this film

Locked Review –

Most films need a hook to get you into the cinemas and part with your hard-earned cash. For me, sometimes that hook is a premise so interesting that you must see how they play it out. Well, Anthony Hopkins traumatising a Skarsgård locked in his car is absolutely one I had to see.  

So, to set the scene, Eddie (Bill Skarsgård) is a crook who is trying to turn his life around for his daughter Sarah (Ashley Cartwright). But the universe is not making it easy for him, and as a deadline looms, he looks to more nefarious ways to make a quick buck. Well, if someone leaves their car unlocked, well they are asking someone to come in and rummage around, and so Eddie does. The only problem is that when he tries to get out, he finds that the car is locked, his mobile can’t get a signal, and suddenly the in-car phone is ringing.

The first thing that I want to say about Locked is that it genuinely had some magnificent cinematic moments. The production team absolutely knows how to light a shot, which is something you especially need when you are primarily stuck in one location. The music is pumping at times, and they completely capture that feeling of claustrophobia. There is this scene at the start where you follow Eddie in one long take as he realises that he is stuck, as the camera swirls around him as he makes a frantic attempt to escape. It is only halfway through the scene when you realise that there is no way the camera could be getting these shots unless there was a lot more digital work hidden around the place or they had an expert in a periscoping camera, which may be the case with all the micro-photography going around.     

While the hook is there, the production is solid, Bill Skarsgård is believably terrified, and Anthony Hopkins is believably terrifying. When we look at all the themes and dialogue, unfortunately, things start falling apart at the seams. While it works better than the very similar Control that we looked at last year, it still fails at a crucial point in that it is not clear if they are critiquing or supporting William’s (Anthony Hopkins) point of view. Now, this lack of decision does not feel purposeful like it was in Civil War. More that they thought that everything that Anthony Hopkins said sounded cool, and it did, and that was enough for them, but it wasn’t. Unfortunately, this flaw in the movie only becomes exasperated once the car leaves the car lot, and you can see that the narrative has no idea what it wants to be. This dramatically affects the suspension of disbelief that you need for a film like this to work and makes the ending fall flat.       

In the end, do we recommend Locked? Visually, it is quite good, and if you are a fan of Bill Skarsgård or Anthony Hopkins, this might be worth checking out. Other than that, unfortunately, no, I can’t recommend it, even if that hook was excellent. Have you watched Locked? Let us know what you thought in the comments below. If you liked Locked, we would recommend to you Carry-On.

By Brian MacNamara: You can follow Brian on Twitter Here, when he’s not chatting about Movies and TV, he’ll be talking about International Relations, or the Solar System.

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Credits – All images were created by the cast, crew, and production companies of Locked
Directed by – David Yarovesky
Screenplay by – Michael Arlen Ross
Based on – 4×4 by Mariano Cohn & Gastón Duprat
Music by – Timothy Williams
Cinematography by – Michael Dallatorre
Edited by – Andrew Buckland & Peter Gvozdas
Production/Distribution Companies – ZQ Entertainment, Raimi Productions, The Avenue & Roadshow Films
Starring – Bill Skarsgård, Anthony Hopkins & Ashley Cartwright
Rating – Australia: MA15+; United States: R