D.J. Caruso’s latest film, “Shut In (2022)” is a survival thriller that stars Rainey Qualley, Jake Horowitz, and Vincent Gallo. While it does not do anything different compared to other films of this genre, its inventive handling of dread and anxiety makes it perfectly watchable. The film is about a single mother locked inside her house’s pantry by her meth head ex-boyfriend and his friend. Now, what she does here on while being locked inside the room with her young kids in the house, makes for a tense and engaging thriller.
The film has been subject to various controversies because The Daily Wire produced it. Keeping the political discussions aside, we will dive into what the film illustrates and attempts to say. This article will talk about every scene and detail, so it’s full of spoilers.
Shut In (2022) Plot Summary & Movie Synopsis:
Jessica Nash (Rainey Qualley) is a young mother of two. She has inherited her mother’s house and is there to get the closet fixed so that she can sell the house and live off the proceeds. The movie opens with her daughter Lainey running outside the house. Outside, Lainey picks apples from an apple tree and runs home with them. But the apples are rotten (this makes for an important symbol that will be explained later). Jessica has been packing because she plans to leave for Texas the next day as she’s having financial difficulties. She goes to get something down from the pantry and gets “shut in.”
She asks Lainey to help from outside, but little Lainey is of no help. However, right then, Jessica’s ex, Rob (Jake Horowitz), shows up at the house with his friend Sammy (Vincent Gallo). He helps her get out. Jessica is furious at Rob for bringing Sammy. Sammy is a pedophile, so she doesn’t want him near their kids. When Jessica mentions this, Sammy gets pissed and manipulates Rob into putting Jessica back in the closet. They nail the door with three wooden boards, even hurting Jessica’s hand that was on the door. Rob slides in three grams of meth inside, claiming it to be good shit.
Jessica is locked in for a full day, unable to escape despite many different attempts. She lures Sammy into reaching under the closet door and proceeds to nip his hand to the floor with a screwdriver that Lainey had brought earlier, trapping him next to her. Lainey comes downstairs despite Jessica’s screams for her to stay locked inside the room upstairs with her little brother, Mason. Sammy catches hold of Lainey and threatens to hurt her if Jessica doesn’t release him. Jessica drizzles some alcohol on his hand and sets it on fire, forcing Sammy to release Lainey. After Jessica douses the fire, Sammy’s hand is burnt and disfigured. He is unconscious and shows no response, meaning that he’s dead. As a result, she takes the screwdriver from his hand so that she can break the wooden ceiling and climb to the second floor.
She grabs the children and runs towards the car to get some food that’s stored in it. It starts to pour fiercely, so she tells the kids to return inside while she is at the door. While standing outside, she peeks inside the house and notices that Sammy isn’t dead. She sees that he has grabbed the children upstairs. Sammy holds a knife at Mason’s throat, threatening to stab him. Rob enters the house and shoots him dead.
Rob wants to reconcile with Jessica despite her wanting him to leave them alone. He asks her to do a hit of meth with her, Jessica pretends to give in, but she has a plan up her sleeve. She makes him an apple butter sandwich, saying that he should fill his stomach before getting high. Afterward, when Rob takes a hit of the drug, Jessica refuses, which makes Rob force her to take it. There is a struggle between them. Right before Rob is about to inject the meth into her, he feels uneasy and weak. Jessica reveals that he is overdosing as she mixes meth in his sandwich.
It was the same meth that he had slid below the door after locking Jessica inside. Jessica pushes him out of the window, and he meets his death. The ending shows sometime later, Jessica and her children being in a better state. They have started their own apple butter business, following their nana’s recipe. Their house is in better condition, they have smiles on their faces, and their life appears more colorful. And most importantly, the apples are not rotten anymore.
Shut In (2022) Movie Ending, Explained:
What do the Apples Symbolize?
In the Bible, an apple is seen as the forbidden fruit. Forbidden fruit refers to anything that one desires, and consuming it is immoral. The genesis of the forbidden fruit story reveals a lot about the condition of the world. Adam and Eve’s consumption of the forbidden fruit resulted in poverty and scarcity of resources. The fruit that grew on the tree of knowledge of good and evil triggered the fall of humanity, creating original sin, which ushered our dark existence in this world. We live in a world full of poverty, bloodshed, and illness as a result.
In the book of Genesis, Adam and Eve were warned not to eat the apple on the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Adam and Eve were banished from the Garden of Eden after eating the apple because of their arrogant desire to resemble God. They were sentenced to a life of drudgery that would eventually result in death. Their eating the fruit had a fatal effect on the world. Subsequently, there was a decay in morality, which caused a rift between God and humans. This is the reason that a savior was needed. God, in his kindness and love, provided a means for reconciliation and redemption of his creation in the form of his son, Jesus Christ.
In the film, the apple symbolizes morality and suffering. The rotten apples, in the beginning, show the immoral and sad state of the characters and their world. Their house is dilapidated, and the colors on their walls are coming off. Everything in their house looks stained. There is a lack of money and resources. Their life is made even harder by Rob and Sammy, two people they don’t want to be associating with. Even the weather is greyish, depressing, and rainy. It’s a sad life that is hard to escape.
In the end, when they are free of their worries, the apples are fresh, the characters look economically more stable, their house looks almost new, they look happier, and it is sunny outside. Thus, the fresh apples indicate that their reality is free of hardships and suffering. Jessica’s character is a symbol of Jesus Christ. She’s shown as a religious woman (indicated in some unsubtle and heavy-handed scenes of her gaining a sort of power after looking at a bible and a cross) who does everything by the book. She is a kind mother who looks after her children and saves them from the dangers of the world.
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