If you’ve never heard of the movie called Locked, it’s because it barely made a blip at the box office earlier this year.
However, this thriller has an unusually great pedigree with leading roles played by Bill Skarsgård and Anthony Hopkins.
Horror icon Sam Raimi produced Locked, which was directed by David Yarovesky from a script inspired by the Argentine film 4×4.
Locked recently made its streaming debut, and it’s our pick for the one Hulu movie that you have to stream this month.
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Bill Skarsgård Embodies a Desperate Antihero
From the beginning, Locked has a fine line to walk because Eddie (Skarsgård) needs to be sympathetic as the main character and also a thief. The one redeeming quality that Eddie has is that he loves his daughter, Sarah (Ashley Cartwright). Eddie is very aware that he’s let Sarah down again, and he resorts to thievery because he doesn’t see any other options to get the money he needs.
Once Eddie is trapped in the SUV, he switches from perpetrator to victim. It’s almost darkly funny that Skarsgård can so convincingly act as if he’s terrified when his characters are usually handing out the scares in his horror movies It and Nosferatu. But Eddie has a completely different persona than any of Skarsgård’s previous characters. He picked the wrong car to rob, and he pays the price. Yet the audience never turns on Eddie despite the crimes he committed earlier in the film. He’s still just an ordinary man in an extraordinary situation.
Anthony Hopkins Delivers Another Great Performance
Is Hopkins’ performance in Locked in the same galaxy as his Oscar-winning turn in The Silence of the Lambs? Of course not. But Hopkins seems to be incapable of giving a bad performance, and his presence alone elevates Locked from B-movie status. More impressively, Hopkins conveys a real sense of menace with just his voice alone.
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Hopkins’ character, William, is kept offscreen for most of the film. He kind of comes off as a rich man’s version of Jigsaw from the Saw movies. William delights in tormenting Eddie, who was stupid enough to fall into his trap. William doesn’t just want Eddie to suffer for his crime; he wants him to accept his punishment no matter how extreme it gets.
‘Locked’ Gets the Most Out of Its Limited Budget
Despite having two A-list actors on the call sheet, Locked appears to have a very small budget. Almost the entire movie takes place in and around the luxury SUV that entraps Eddie. Regardless, the movie manages to build up some suspense when Eddie tries to rebel against William or when Eddie attempts to escape.
While the scenes with the SUV on the road aren’t as convincing as the rest of the movie, those scenes still convey the fear that Eddie has. The story ultimately comes down to a test of wills between Eddie and William. And when it looks like one of them will prevail, the movie throws more twists for you to keep watching until its shocking ending.
Locked is streaming on Hulu.
