Move over, John Kramer — there's a novel twisted vigilante in town! And this ain't just any venerable bloodthirsty kook either: it's Hannibal Lecter
Move over, John Kramer — there’s a novel twisted vigilante in town! And this ain’t just any venerable bloodthirsty kook either: it’s Hannibal Lecter himself, Sir Anthony Hopkins. Yes, in David Yarovesky’s upcoming single location thriller Locked, Hopkins plays William, a Jigsaw-style nippy, tranquil, and collected killer who traps unsuspecting lout Eddie (Bill Skarsgård) in his luxury SUV when the down-on-his-luck thief tries to steal his car. Thus ensues a battle of wits as William employs all sorts of cruel, car-based torture to punish Eddie while his hostage fights for survival. And you can check out the trailer for the Sam Raimi produced horror thriller, a remake of original 2019 Argentinian effort 4×4 (which itself has been remade once already as 2022 Brazilian flick A Jaula), below:
“I just want to introduce you to a little taste of hell,” Hopkins’ William — only heard, never seen — tells Eddie in this cheek-clenchingly tense first trailer for Locked. And a little taste of hell is about the right description for what follows as we see Skarsgård’s peroxide carjacker variously tased, starved, frozen, and quite literally driven to the brink of insanity by his dulcet toned tormentor. Splitting the difference between Locke, Saw, and Escape Room, Yarovesky’s movie looks to have the hooky high concept, propulsive feel, and tightly coiled tension to be a low-key banger, and in the shape of Skarsgård and Hopkins — two actors who, between them, have brought to life some of cinema’s most iconic villains — the Brightburn filmmaker has two aces up his sleeve who have clearly shown up ready and raring to play.
Will William get the justice he so darkly craves? Will Eddie escape the world’s most hardcore child lock? And is anybody else going to mention the fact that this is, in a roundabout way, a sort-of stealth spiritual sequel to both Bram Stoker’s Dracula and Nosferatu, with Abraham Van Helsing and Dracula (in all but name) going head-to-head once again? We’ll find out the answers to at least a couple of those questions when Locked hits cinemas on 21 March stateside, and over here presumably soon after.
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