SHUT IN is a low budget Canadian thriller with a Hollywood star in the form of Naomi Watts, who really needs to learn to pick better material (but then I wasn't fussed about the bloated KING KONG remake that made her name either). She plays the stepmother of a boy (as played by STRANGER THINGS star Charlie Heaton) badly disabled in a car accident that also killed her husband. The two share many dark times but there's a ray of light when another vulnerable boy comes into Naomi's care. All this is rather insipid and tired, and then towards the end it suddenly shifts into a laughably predictable psycho thriller mode with jump scares and the like. It's not believable for a moment.

Richard and Mary Portman (Naomi Watts) have an unruly teen child, Stephen (Charlie Heaton) so they are "shipping you off to military school with that... g-d- Finkelstein... s**t kid!" or something like that. As dad is driving his son away, they get into a tussle..."Hey stop touching me!" kiss a truck and the next thing you know dad is history and Stephen is somewhat catatonic being cared by Mary, who is actually his step-mother. Fortunately her office is next door. Tom (Jacob Tremblay) a hard of hearing nine year old who doesn't wear any type of unsightly hearing aide, is one of her patients. On his trip to Boston, he runs away and shows up at her door in the cold and snow.

Mary has issues. She has dreams where she kills or injures Stephen. She also has those realistic dreams where she thinks someone is in the house and everyone has this figured out except for her. Long time actor Oliver Platt has a small role as a doctor.

Watts did her normally great Oscar style performance for a film nobody is going to see. Unfortunately the plot was lame and formula. A second issue is that half the movie is filmed at night in candle light or filtered moonlight. You literally miss seeing scenes and have to figure out what is happening from the sound. Where is Tom Bodett when you need him? Guide: F-word. No sex. IMDb claims nudity, but it was dark and from the side.

Steven Portman (Charlie Heaton) is an angry teen and causes his father to drive into a truck. Six months later, Steven is in a vegetative state and his father is dead. His stepmother Mary (Naomi Watts) is struggling to care for him. She's a child psychologist. Tom Patterson (Jacob Tremblay) is a deaf patient who goes missing.

The story telling is muddled but worst than that, it's lackluster. It tries to be a little bit of Shinning with the snowy isolation. There are too many "It's a Nightmare" reveals. A great actor like Oliver Platt gets only fleeting appearances. I actually thought Tremblay would have more screen time. Overall, this movie does a lot of nothing scenes that hopes to build the mood but really does nothing at all. None of it is scary. There is an obvious twist that I fear would happen. Sure enough, it does and it's as lame as that.