TRAILER

Who's the scariest?

This tale of demonic possession was directed by Daniel Stamm (The Last Exorcism) the German-born Holllywood filmmaker best known for directing and writing horror films. It is based on a story by Soren Narnia adapted from the "Knifepoint Horror" podcast penned by her. It doesn't go outside the norms of genre, but it has some very nice visuals and cranked-up performances.

The premise delivers us a churchgoing and kindly lady seeking peace after her mother's death. (There are at least three priests in this film.) Her name is Ellen (Carla Gugino), and to handle her sorrow and a sense of futility after a series of unsatisfying recent efforts, she retreats to a rural town. There, she quickly takes in her severely traumatized cousin Winthrop (Lou Taylor Pucci) soon to start a job in a sheet metal factory, as a border when a neighbor has had enough of him. Understandably: he's a musclebound weirdo seemingly unable to talk much. He is often seen sleeveless and muscular, and once glimpsed naked standing in the bath, his legs covered with something he later tells Ellen are burns from a joke that went awry. This is not what really happened.

I have not followed Lou Taylor Pucci since his acclaimed starring debut in 2005 in Thumbsucker[/ except for the interesting, shape-shifting 2014 film Spring. He may have taken on some wild, strung-out roles. This is in that vein, but with an emphasis in the case of Winthrop largely on implosion. We can't tell mostly what's going on inside Winthrop but it can't be pleasant. One link to the first film is that while Justin in Thumbsucker is slightly androgynous, Winthrop under pressure begins to cross-dress a bit, though by then, it's not clear it's really Winthrop in there any more.

Ellen and Winthrop's already fragile domestic balance (since she rarely gets a word out of him) is shattered when an erratic, intrusive, and annoying neighbor called Vanna Menter (Katherine Isabelle) comes to visit repeatedly, once forcing herself on them to let her stay over night during a storm. She teases Winthrop and warns Ellen that he is dangerous. As strange phenomena escalate, Ellen must put everything on the line to defend her cousin from a dangerous otherworldly entity out to dominate him (as they say).

A violent event involving Vanna transforms the film for a while into a police procedural, but this turns out to be only a diversion. What the story is on the track of is always demonic possession. Naturally things heat up more toward the end. It may feel like the demons are going to come off the screen and possess YOU. But never fear. It's only a movie, and not one on track for surprises, awards or rave reviews, though the cast members, including several young ones, all do their jobs effectively. This is not the playful hybrid of genres that Pucci's 2014 Spring was, but simply standard full-on genre with periodic little jump-scares.

The title points to a concept, traced of course to an old text in a strange language, whereby the gleeful hopping about of evil spirits from one human victim to another can be short-circuited by finding an individual whose soul is so structured that it can contain and trap them permanently. This person is known as a "lockbox." Choosing young people for this role seems like a form of abuse. But there are lots of histories of abuse in Lockbox, and another concept is that the best subjects for possession are those unfortunate enough to have suffered cruelty while growing up. In the end the screenplay often seems to be talking obliquely about psychological trauma and its lingering effect on human lives.

Lockbox aka Winthrop (note: in the film closing credits the source story is given as "Lock Box"; it is by Soren Narnia), 100 mins., goes into limited US theatrical release Jul. 3, 2026.

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©Chris Knipp. Blog: http://chrisknipp.blogspot.com/.