‘Locked In’ Review – This Erotic Thriller Could Ruin Your Netflix And Chill

Locked In is exactly what you think it’s going to be. The plot is contrived. Predictably, the dialogue is eye-rolling, and the character behaviors are over-the-top. Of course, to distract you, like a magician’s assistant, the movie has a couple of sexy leads that generate so much heat you’ll be shocked that the piles of hay they keep using won’t spontaneously combust after each thrust. Yes, it’s another genre that Netflix, like big box stores, is trying to corner the market on. The streaming giant is now a one-stop shop where you can watch action, comedy, and, yes, the Lifetime movie genre.

The story follows a young couple on their wedding day. Jamie (Peaky Blinders alum Finn Cole) and Lina (Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris’s Rose Williams) are an odd match. They grew up together after Jamie’s mother, Katherine (Famke Janssen), took her in as a child. Jamie is spoiled and resentful of his mother’s constant attention-seeking, even during their wedding dance.

Jamie’s also hooked on opioids prescribed by his best friend, Robert (The Tragedy of Macbeth’s Alex Hassell, destined to play Hugh Laurie’s character in a movie flashback scene someday), preventing him from performing his newly minted husbandly duties on their wedding night. In a howling scene, while Jamie is passed out, Robert warmly offers condolences to Lina, asking the bride to let him know if there’s anything he can do for her.

The script has a decent structure for a film of this genre. Jumping between the past and present, Katherine is in the hospital, unable to speak about her unfortunate accident. Nicky, Katherine’s nurse (Monarch’s Anna Friel), investigates what happened to Katherine (she probably has binged too many true crime podcasts). At this point, the film begins to flounder when it too often revels in its own flamboyance. Director Nour Wazzi (Murder Manual) offers little substance outside the bedsheets for a movie that should have a better sense of plotting.

Yes, Locked In is made for a specific audience. The script by Rowan Joffe, who wrote The American and 28 Days Later, smells of someone dusting off a payday. Which, frankly, no one should have a problem with. What you should take issue with is that when the film gets to the pivotal point of no return, the scene is ridiculous and mind-numbingly harmful to anyone in love with the art form. You should demand Netflix to give you your money back. It’s frustrating to get something so bad it’s good only to be ruined by an issue that could be easily tweaked in a rewrite. Yes, this writer is obsessive about the story. Deal with it.

This Netflix erotic thriller shifts tone in the second half, trying to become something more psychological. It’s manipulative and doesn’t necessarily work with the script’s foundation. Of course, when arriving at this point, one character instigates a key plot point, then automatically regrets it to the point of pretending it wasn’t what they wanted.

Locked In will win over fans of the genre. It even satisfies that itch for anyone looking for 96 minutes of mindless entertainment. Or yes, it was made specifically to fulfill that “Netflix and Chill” euphemism. Either way, if you want to watch this film outside those parameters, you’ll be sorely disappointed.

Locked In is currently available to stream on Netflix. 

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6a3yXfMEJg]