Movies
Shutter Island
“Shutter Island might not ever be considered “classic” Scorsese but it’s a damn fine example of a master hard at work. It’s a fantastic homage to Val Lewton B-movies and an experience that’s worth having a second time at the least. If you can appreciate the nightmarish, gothic charms of the classic horror films of yesteryear, you will no doubt be entranced by the mystery surrounding Shutter Island and its inhabitants.”
Shutter Island can be explained with one word: nightmarish. Make no bones about it, it’s a film where the ending can be deciphered rather quickly – from the trailer even – and yet, it’s fascinating to watch the events unfold, if only to see how off-kilter the pieces of this filmic puzzle are. The conclusion is obvious, but watching a master craftsman pick and choose which clues to show and how is the real beauty of Scorsese’s latest foray into psychological terror.
The mood is set from the first shots as Ashecliffe – an asylum for the criminally insane – is shown through Robert Richardson’s cinematography as more of a character than a location. Between the moody lighting and the foreboding sense of dread that permeates from almost every frame, Richardson’s work proves about as integral to the atmosphere and storytelling of Shutter Island as Scorsese’s direction, DiCaprio’s acting chops and Laeta Kalogridis’ screenplay – all exemplary, I might add.
Ashecliffe might be the more obvious “haunted house” of the film but there is a second in DiCaprio’s Teddy Daniels, a U.S. Marshall sent to the asylum, along with his partner Chuck Aule (Mark Ruffalo), to look for an inmate that has mysteriously vanished into thin air. Of course, nothing is what it seems at Ashecliffe and the patients and doctors (with excellently evil performances by Ben Kingsley and Max Von Sydow) seem to be harboring a giant secret. After the initial setup, the film really starts getting into nightmare territory, offering up a disorienting reality as seen through Teddy’s eyes. Between the actual nightmares – ranging from his time liberating Dachau to his wife’s demise at the hands of an arsonist – and the waking nightmares, Teddy’s down and out Marshall is a sight to behold; a man who has ulterior motives for being on the island, and one who’s willing to take risks and a beating to get the truth. He’s not tough, he’s strong-willed. His inner turmoil over the past is manifested quite horrifically in island locales, whether it be the cold, harsh shores or the rusty, metal catwalks of the block reserved for the asylum’s most heinous offenders. And really, above all else, this is a film about dealing with guilt and coming to terms with reality, making the psychological and emotional approach Scorsese is known for the perfect fit for the material.
While Shutter Island is certainly DiCaprio’s show to steal, the aforementioned performances and turns from Ted Levine as a warden, Michelle Williams as a ghostly dead wife, and Jackie Earle Haley and Elias Koteas as crazed inmates are positively chilling. The only performance that felt shafted in the whole affair was Ruffalo’s and it’s not because he was bad (quite the opposite, actually), he just wasn’t given much to do aside from being a sidekick.
Minor Spoilers Ahead
Shutter Island is an almost flawless experience up until the end, and it’s not even because the reveal is obvious; it’s the way it’s overexplained that’s the problem. Certainly, this is a film that’s about the ride and not so much the climax, as clues are littered about the entire film which clearly hint at the ending. But having a character pull out a chalkboard to explain certain details for the benefit of the audience and the characters involved seems a bit desperate. However, the greater concern generates from the fact that after these certain details are examined, we watch them play out in flashbacks, which kind of negates the whole “whose recollection of reality is factual?” angle that could have made the film that much greater, if only because of the intense discussions that could have followed.
End Of Spoilers
Shutter Island might not ever be considered “classic” Scorsese but it’s a damn fine example of a master hard at work. It’s a fantastic homage to Val Lewton B-movies (Bedlam and a few others came to mind while viewing it) and an experience that’s worth having a second time at the least. If you can appreciate the nightmarish, gothic charms of the classic horror films of yesteryear, you will no doubt be entranced by the mystery surrounding Shutter Island and its inhabitants.
Judging from the unprecedented box office success of Kane Parsons’ Backrooms adaptation, you’ve likely already seen the liminal horror hit that managed to make audiences afraid of empty hallways and bad wallpaper. And now that so many of us have already entered the yellow labyrinth (some of us more than once), the time has come to discuss the spoiler-filled details that make the movie so fascinating in the first place.
And if there’s one element here that makes the Backrooms movie stand out from any previous lore/mythology, it has to be the genius addition of the Still Life entities. Warped recreations of real people that somehow wandered into the Complex, these misremembered creatures are responsible for some of the most disturbing imagery of 2026 – as well as laugh-out-loud memes created by one of the film’s very own concept artists.
However, true to Parsons’ word that the movie would rely heavily on practical effects, each of these distorted monsters was brought to life by real actors under heavy layers of makeup and prosthetics (with the occasional splash of CGI enhancements). While Anora and If I Had Legs I’d Kick You actress Ivy Wolk wasn’t among these performers, despite what Letterboxd might have you believe, the creature cast did benefit from veteran players with plenty of genre experience.
For starters, Alien: Romulus alumni Robert Bobroczkyi (who previously brought that film’s horrific Offspring to life during its most memorable sequence) plays the flick’s main antagonist, the Still Life version of Captain Clark. And though there was some obvious CGI involved in making the character’s peg-leg and nightmarish face more believable, Bobroczkyi’s monstrous performance and his natural 7’7″ frame helped to make that final chase sequence a clear highlight among this year’s genre offerings.
The film’s Texas-Chain-Saw-inspired “dinner” scene also features a freaky collection of less-aggressive Still Life creatures in the form of the Bearded Man, the Red-Headed Woman and, strangest of them all, the cheekily named “Archibald Leland Sutter Still Life” (who earned this title among fans and crewmembers as a reference to his apparent affinity for lamps).
While this was the first major horror outing for both Patrick Baynham (The Bearded Man) and Dana Mahmood (Archibald), Rhiannon Roberts has worked as a stunt performer in everything from Yellowjackets to HBO’s The Last of Us adaptation – which is probably why The Red-Headed Woman is the most active out of Clark’s impromptu “family.” That being said, the Archibald Leland Sutter Still Life is my personal favorite of the bunch simply because his anachronistic outfit suggests that the Backrooms phenomenon might be a lot older than the Async Foundation. I also love how hard he tries to be helpful with that little light of his!
That might be it for the Still Life entities, but I think horror fans will also be pleased to hear that the film’s Found Footage prologue stars none other than Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City star Avan Jogia as Naren Warne – and American Mary herself Katharine Isabelle also shows up in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameo at Mary’s house party towards the middle of the story (though I have a feeling that she originally had a bigger part that was likely cut for time).
At the end of the day, Parsons’ Backrooms may have been an auteur-driven project motivated by the young director’s unique take on the classic creepypasta, but film has always been a collective artform, so it’s fun to see just how many talented performers it takes to bring this kind of supernatural nightmare to life in a way that connects with so many people.
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