Sheltered (2010) Reviews

• Neat suspense thriller

  Woodyanders2011-07-13

  Awkward, but friendly and handsome bartender Joey (a fine and intense performance by the hunky Gerald Downey) allows a group of young vacationers to seek refuge in his house on the eve of a big storm. The vacationers soon discover that there's a crazed killer in their midst, but unfortunately are trapped inside the house by the fierce storm that's raging outside. Director Josh Stoddard, who also co-wrote the absorbing script with Matthew Murray, relates the gripping story at a steady pace, does an expert job of creating and sustaining a potently spooky gloom-doom mood, stages the jolting moments of sudden brutal violence with real flair and skill, and adds a few nice touches of amusing black humor for good measure. The slowly mounting tension gets more edgy and unsettling as the narrative unfolds, with an especially harrowing last third and a startling denouement that's not only upsetting, but also unexpectedly poignant. It's this latter element of tragedy and poignancy which in turn gives this picture an extra substantial emotional resonance (Downey's outwardly charming and polite Joey makes for a scary, yet still somehow strangely pitiable psycho). The competent acting from the able no-name cast helps a lot, with particularly praiseworthy contributions from Tricia Small as the sweet and sensitive Denise, Stacia Crawford as the spunky Jen, Allison Dunbar as the snippy Susan, Jonathan Frapier as bumbling loser Todd, and Manoel Hudec as Joey's creepy and antagonistic drug dealer brother Billy. Marco Fargnoli's slick cinematography gives this movie an impressive polished look. In addition, Small and Dee Rock provide a handful of spot-on harmonic songs on the nifty soundtrack. A cool little flick.

• Bad horror movie that does almost everything wrong...

  dwpollar2011-08-29

  1st watched 8/28/2011 –(Dir-Josh Stoddard): Bad horror movie that does almost everything wrong from the beginning to the end. It starts out with the typical rowdy young group of kids out to have a good time despite driving right into the face of a hurricane on a vacation(where they just will not be denied their fun, of course). They stop at a bar to have a few drinks, their car stops working, and the bartender graciously gives them a place to stay and party until the storm ceases. Of course, this bartender, has other things in mind for them as the filmmaker lets us know about right off the bat by showing us his first kill at his feet behind the bar(there goes the mystery…so why watch the rest??). I did continue watching the rest – and the rest consisted of the group drinking, some random sex, and then the group being killed off one-by-one. That was pretty-much the movie, except they did let us know why he wants to kill in the first place, and one female character strangely sees all the background thru various apparitions(and we're never told why). There's plenty of blood and gore, if you like that kind of thing, but there is no brains behind the story. It's a typical slasher-type movie that's been retread many times over and un-fortunately the best part of the movie was the original music performed by one of the stars. Music though, doesn't make a movie – but instead should complement it – but sadly there was no movie here to be complemented.

• Bloody Fun

  papamccain2015-05-23

  The story and the coincidences may have been a bit too contrived but the actors pulled every bit of good out of the script. Everybody knows within the first 15 minutes how it was going to roll, but the acting kept you engaged. Gerald Downey's ability to turn from pleasant young man to psycho murderer was quite well done as was his portrayal of OCD. Mandel Hudec always angry still pulled it off at the end. Worth watching at least once as a guilty pleasure. The women (Stacia Crawford, Tricia Small, Allison Dunbar, Heather Loschiavo) played some great characters also, more mature but just as horny as your typical teenage thriller.

• Surprisingly fantastic!

  xxxsarahmariexx2013-04-09

  I'm the ultimate horror movie buff. I bought this film in a 4-film movie pack, so I wasn't expecting much. It was actually good though! The acting was solid, the blood was realistic, and the storyline was fun. At first I was confused about the voices and little visions, but the wrapped it up nicely. My biggest problem though... (*spoilers!*) At the end, when Joey had lost a lot of blood and he was holding the gun, Billy appeared out of nowhere and stabbed him with a hook. My reaction: WHAT?! Billy was CLEARLY shot in the heart by Joey earlier. He should've been dead! Yet somehow he lives and is shown holding his dead brother while Jen escapes. Maybe the writers didn't notice this? ... Actually I'm pretty happy with it, because the actor who played Billy was extremely cute, so I may be biased. :) Overall, a great thriller with some good bloody scenes and a talented, attractive cast. What more could you want?

• Awful

  davidfio-788032018-11-03

  The acting, story and directing are all bad. The plot is easy enough to follow but many of the characters actions make no sense. This move is bad on every level and a complete waste of time.