Among the horror films released this year, “Shut In” could possibly be one of the worst.

This film presents a story of a woman named Mary (Naomi Watts, “Allegiant”), a children’s psychologist who is taking care of her quadriplegic son (Charlie Heaton, “Stranger Things”) in Maine. The son became paralyzed from the neck down after a car crash on their way to a boarding school, which killed his father.

One of Mary’s patients, a young boy named Tom (Jacob Tremblay, “Room”), disappears during a winter storm. Mary starts to experience strange occurrences throughout the film, leaving the audience to wonder if the ghost of this missing child is haunting her for unknown reasons.

One thing that hurts this film is the fact that the characters, especially Mary, portray typical tropes of characters not using their head and being rational in certain situations. There are plenty of scenes where characters’ actions seem almost unquestioned and unmotivated.

Another weak point is the constant misdirects the film causes the viewers to go through as the story progresses. Throughout the duration of the film, viewers are constantly watching what they think is real, but it often turns out to be a dream sequence. As the film continues, the dreams just get more and more confusing, constantly making the audience decipher what is real and what is not.

The conflicts presented in this film are weak and the plotholes leave the audience confused. Questions arise such as the reason the son was being expelled from school and being sent to boarding school. There are other problems, such as the film being set in Maine during the winter during a snowstorm, yet the pond located near the house is not frozen.

Watts certainly does not live up to her previous work within the horror genre. Her portrayal of the widowed mother feels as though she has not connected. It feels as if she is just reciting lines at certain points within the film, causing the story to become hardly believable.

The film also features actors such as Heaton and Oliver Platt (“Chicago Med”), who plays Mary’s colleague who assures her that she is suffering from parasomnia and the things she sees are not real. Their performances are also sub-par, considering the film’s plot structure and weaknesses cause the characters to fall through the cracks as well.

One of the biggest gripes within the film is possibly the M. Night. Shyamalan-esque twist that is revealed within the last 20 minutes of the film. Within the last act, it is revealed to the audience and causes the viewer to completely question the entire film and loses the audience’s attention. The introduction of the twist causes the entire film not to make sense as a whole, especially when the twist itself is ridiculous and does not involve any explanation or reasoning behind it.

All together, this film was a flop due to its lack of plot progression, along with character development and the confusion caused by majority of the film. This could have been a very good film if it had been executed better.