Locked (2025) review

Dir. David Yarovesky

By: Steve Pulaski

Rating: ★★★½

Bill Skarsgård — looking like a gaunt, shiesty version of Joe Burrow — is Eddie Barrish, a desperate degenerate ostensibly paying for the sins of Pennywise and Count Orlok in a taut, gripping new movie called Locked.

A remake of an Argentinian thriller from 2019, David Yarovesky’s unassuming potboiler arrives in theaters with more gravity than most under-promoted indies of its ilk. The twofer of Skarsgård and Anthony Hopkins already gets the attention of most cinephiles. Then you notice Sam Raimi is a producer, and suddenly you find yourself, for lack of a better term, locked in to a 90-minute emotional rollercoaster.

Back to Eddie. He’s the kind of petty criminal who makes a good sympathetic figure, for he clearly wants to do right by his young daughter (Ashley Cartwright) despite the fact he consistently forgets to pick her up from school. He resorts to carjacking and other seemingly small crimes in order to make end’s meet, but he realizes he picks the wrong vehicle when the 2024 Dolus he enters won’t let him out after the door is shut.

It takes mere minutes for Eddie to notice that the vehicle (which is built like a Bronco with high-tech features akin to a Tesla) is soundproof, the windows are tinted, and the doors and windows are all locked. No one can see him inside and no one can hear him scream. He has a gun, which is also of no use as the bullets just ricochet off of the glass; one pierces his leg, compounding his grave mistake.

Eventually, the car-phone rings and the words “Answer Me” appear on the digital console. “Jolly good, welcome aboard,” says Anthony Hopkins, with his velvety voice. He introduces himself as William from South Wales, and explains that his vehicle has been broken into six times without any arrests. Now, he’s got the latest carjacker right where he wants him. He tortures the helpless Eddie with electric jolts from underneath the car seats, oscillating the car’s temp from extreme cold to extreme heat, and the deafening sounds of yodeling polka music.

When Eddie manages to calm down and behave, William rewards him with treats released from the otherwise locked glovebox. In the second act, William controls the vehicle remotely and sends Eddie on a hellish joy ride through the dirty streets of an urban slum, underscored by poverty, homelessness, and gangs.

Skarsgård could teach a master-class in “whole-assing” a role, regardless of what is required. He is intensely committed to playing a criminal who now has to fight for his life inside a rolling death-trap. It helps that Skarsgård physically looks the part. Even though this role doesn’t require extensive layers of prosthetics and makeup that likely weigh as much as he does, his sunken eyes, sickly appearance, and pained, eventually hoarse screams are arguably more effective.

Hopkins, unseen for about 75% of the movie, is equally arresting as he harnesses the power of his recognizable, whimsical drawl and weaponizes it as menacing. Hopkins has always used eloquence as one of his most charming assets, and his musings range from thought-provoking to ruthless and insulting. William is a bit like John Kramer if he stopped short of sympathizing with the poor and helpless and spent Saw VI empathizing with healthcare executives. He’s almost a villain you can get behind.

Yarovesky figures out every camera angle to employ in William’s SUV for the purpose of clarity and gradually intensifying suspense. Screenwriter Michael Arlen Ross writes Eddie and William’s back-and-forths as appropriately impulsive, only treating us to a couple of monologues from our antihero early, when he’s still got energy on his side. To keep us on our toes, Yarovesky occasionally treats us to an unnerving close-up of Eddie’s nail getting plucked off, or his teeth smashing into the console (perhaps Raimi whispered to him that the film needed more body horror).

There’s a handful of delightful surprises to be found in Locked, which might end up being one of the most underrated and entertaining films of the year.

Starring: Bill Skarsgård, Anthony Hopkins, Ashley Cartwright, Michael Eklund, and Navid Charkhi. Directed by: David Yarovesky.