Locked (2025) The Avenue/Action-Thriller RT: 95 minutes Rated R (strong violent content/bloody images, language throughout, brief drug use) Director: David Yarovesky Screenplay: Michael Arlen Ross Music: Tim Williams Cinematography: Michael Dallatorre Release date: March 21, 2025 (US) Cast: Bill Skarsgard, Anthony Hopkins, Ashley Cartwright, Michael Eklund, Navid Charkhi.
Rating: ***
The action-thriller Locked takes place mainly inside a luxury SUV designed by its psychotic owner to torture anyone dumb enough to break into it. The dummy in question is Eddie Barrish (Skarsgard, It), a guy who might as well have a big flashing neon sign above his head reading “LOSER”. The universe appears to be against him in every way. He can’t afford to have his van fixed meaning he’s unable to pick up his young daughter Sarah (Cartwright) from school. His ex gives him s*** for it. The mechanic is the opposite of sympathetic. Nobody will lend him money. He’s reduced to checking vehicles for something to steal. That’s when his troubles increase tenfold.
Eddie sees the unattended, unlocked SUV and rifles through it for something to sell. When he tries to exit the vehicle, it automatically locks him inside. While fruitlessly trying to escape, the phone keeps ringing. When Eddie finally answers, it’s the vehicle’s owner, a chap calling himself William (Hopkins, The Silence of the Lambs) who’s controlling everything from his location. He explains that he had the car built after several other break-ins. He’s looking to leave his mark on the world before he dies of cancer by eliminating criminals like Eddie. But first, he wants to f*** with him. The seats are rigged with tasers that deliver painful electrical shocks whenever Eddie swears or tries to cover the cameras. When he’s really bad, William can raise or lower the temperature and play music that hurts Eddie’s ears- e.g. yodeling.
Most of the film concerns Eddie’s attempts to escape from captivity. Unfortunately, his captor is always a few steps ahead. Also, he’s bat crap crazy. At one point, he takes a screaming Eddie on a wild ride through the city (it was filmed in Vancouver) during which he runs over a couple of muggers in an alley. Then he decides to go after little Sarah.
Directed by David Yarovesky (Brightburn), Locked is a sufficiently suspenseful single-setting thriller. He makes the most of the small confined space that serves as a torture chamber. We watch as Eddie starts to lose it due to a combination of factors- fear, panic, hunger, thirst and claustrophobia. In the role, Skarsgard does a pretty good job. The actor has been a busy boy as of late. In the past year, he’s been in three other films- Boys Kills World, The Crow and Nosferatu. The wretched Crow reboot notwithstanding, he has a fairly solid resume. In Locked, he’s kind of like a less funny version of Pete Davidson. His character can’t catch a break to save his life. Things consistently go from bad to worse for this guy. Skarsgard believable conveys the notion of a street-level criminal in a dire situation, one that could very well end in his death. He goes from angry to scared and panicked then to penitent. It’s convincing.
Hopkins, who literally phones it in here, always makes a great villain. Fear not, the acclaimed actor shows himself in time for the finale. Until then, he’s just a menacing voice on the phone. He controls Eddie’s environment and refuses to show mercy. He’s like a vengeful God passing judgment. The cool thing about Hopkins is his willingness to go slumming in films that aren’t prestige projects like The Remains of the Day and Shadowlands (both 1993). He followed up his Oscar-winning role in The Silence of the Lambs with the junky dystopian sci-fi piece Freejack (1992). He took a cue from Laurence Olivier (Zeus in Clash of the Titans) by playing Odin in the Thor movies (2011-17). Although the 87YO actor shows signs of slowing down a bit, he hasn’t lost that edge that makes him an effective villain.
Locked has its fair share of jolts and thrills. It has an interesting premise, decent storyline and a protagonist you may not like at first. You come to sympathize with him and his current plight not to mention the steady stream of bad luck that follows him around. In the end, you want him to escape so he can be with his daughter who seems to need him. Where is this girl’s mother? We never see her. We only hear her voice on the phone once when she calls to give Eddie a hard time about his failings as a father. The point is I like Locked. It’s a pretty good thriller. I can think of worse ways to kill 95 minutes.
