Abuse and trauma and how they shape a person is a recurring theme in horror, and Daniel Stimm’s Lockbox is the latest to tackle this idea, giving the classic concept a demonic spin.
Based on the popular Knifepoint Horror podcast short story of the same name (shoutout to Spectrevision), Lockbox is the story of Ellen, a woman who recently lost her mother to Alzheimer’s. Shortly after moving to a new town for a fresh start, Ellen takes in her cousin Winthrop, a PTSD addled veteran who’s struggling in his post service world. At first, Ellen chalks up Winthrop’s eccentric behavior to his condition, but it becomes apparent that it’s more than his mental health issues and that something has its eye on him due to his struggle with PTSD. Her kooky neighbor (played expertly by the great Katherine Isabella)’s constant boundary crossing isn’t helping things either. Soon, Ellen finds herself fighting against something she doesn’t understand, and it’s up to her to make sure Winthrop doesn’t become the next victim in a long line of tragedy.
Anchored by two solid performances by Carla Gugino as Ellen and Lou Taylor Pucci as Winthrop, Lockbox nonetheless struggles to cross the finish line. At an hour and forty-five minutes it feels far too long for the story it’s trying to tell and far too often it feels like the film is merely treading water. There’s an exposition dump in the last act that reveals a fascinating story: that certain people can contain demons within them and not be possessed, like a biological version of the containment unit from Ghostbusters. That’s undeniably a really freaking cool idea. Unfortunately, it’s a reveal that comes almost too late in the movie and would feel entirely something like an afterthought were it not for a brief sequence at the beginning. The film isn’t helped by some of the imagery: inhumanely gaping jaws and rolled back into the head eyes as a sign of possession would’ve felt cliched in 2006.
Gugino and Pucci are fantastic together, perfectly meshing and working wonderfully off one another. Gugino brings a genuine sense of maternal concern to the role, and never allows the character to stray into overdone mother hen territory. Her Ellen has a true compassion to her, a realistic sense of concern for the well-being of others. And Pucci’s Winthrop is equally well constructed. Pucci imbibes his character with a sad vulnerability that feels believable and real. Even later in the film when things take a turn for the worse, Pucci is a talented enough actor to inject his performance with a sinister edge that feels like something outside of the character has taken over, something in line with his fear that he’s “thinking someone else’s thoughts.”. All that being said, even these performances aren’t enough to help this film.
Lockbox isn’t a bad movie per se; it has a few interesting ideas spread throughout. But it’s way too long for what it’s trying to do and comes off as overextended and overreaching more than scary or interesting. I suspect it’s due more to limited source material than it is to a lack of talent, but nonetheless it feels like something of a disappointment in the end.
