Nour Wazzi’s Locked In is a 2023 thriller movie with a plot that centers around tense relationships between a newlywed and her mother-in-law. Although the description makes it sound generic, Locked In’s storyline is intriguing enough to keep us glued to the screen until the predictable but well-deserved end.
Released earlier this month, Locked In follows Lina, a newly married woman whose adoptive mother, Katherine, becomes her mother-in-law after marriage. When Katherine is found severely injured after an accident, her nurse, Mackenzie, unveils the actual events that led to the unexpected & terrible accident.
The underappreciated cast of Locked In consists of Famke Janssen as Katherine, Rose Williams in the role of Lina, Alex Hassell as Doctor Robert Lawrence, Finn Cole plays Jamie, and Anna Friel as Mackenzie.
Locked In: What Happens In The Film?
The movie begins with Katherine being brought to the hospital following a mysterious accident. The injuries were so brutal that Katherine was left in a vegetative, unresponsive state where she couldn’t even move her eyes despite having consciousness.
Lina, her daughter-in-law, visits her at the hospital and meets Mackenzie, a nurse who’s trying her best to get Katherine back to normal.
Lina was Katherine’s friend’s daughter and was adopted to bring her out of poverty. Katherine used to be a popular Hollywood actress but now lives most of her life at the isolated property along with her sickly son Jamie.
Since Jamie and Lina grew up together, Lina knew how to take care of Jamie’s seizures and eventually got married to him despite being stepsiblings. This is where Katherine and Lina’s relationship changes, as Katherine believes Lina used her for her money and is now the owner of the large property along with Jamie.
Their family doctor, Dr. Robert, kept prescribing addictive pain meds to Jamie, eventually threatening his life. Mackenzie recalls the time she had treated Jamie, too. We see that Lina and Robert get into an intimate relationship, following which Robert forces Lina to kill Jamie and Katherine so that they can live in the house together.
After unwantedly becoming a part of his evil plans, Lina and Robert drown Jamie. She has nightmares about Jamie every day, showing that she feels guilty despite hating Jamie for being the reason she had to be at home all the time.
Lina later finds out that Robert’s cheating on her with Katherine and tries to leave the house, but Robert starts chasing her, hoping to stop her before she lets the police know about everything. Katherine’s accident happens right after this when she is hit by a car at full speed.
Locked In 2023: Ending Explained
Lina and Robert hide Katherine and take her back to their home. The rainy day made Lina believe that it was Katherine who tried to shoot her first, but in the end, the killer turned out to be someone else.
After Katherine regains some of her eyelid movement, she uses the letter board to spell out “murder” to Mackenzie, who instantly assumes that Lina and Robert are the ones behind the attempted killing.
Following their escape, Mackenzie finally realizes what truly happened and reveals that Robert had been the one who was after Lina’s life. Since Lina had stabbed him in the arm, Robert wanted to kill her in a fit of rage. To save Lina’s life, Katherine had to come in between and get hit by Robert’s car.
Now that Lina knows about Robert’s real intentions, she decides to stab him when he tries to kill Katherine using the medications.
Locked In has an intriguing storyline, with the title often resonating with Jamie’s sickness, locking him up at home, Lina being locked out of the outside world & Katherine being locked in her own body after the accident.
Robert didn’t love either of the women but was only after the money and the huge house. He successfully killed Jamie and was willing to kill Lina or Katherine, depending on the situation. Once he failed to manipulate Lina, Robert tried to kill her.
While Katherine hated Lina after she married Jamie, there was always a soft spot for her in her heart. Locked In’s fast-paced storyline doesn’t give much depth to Lina and Katherine’s one-of-a-kind relationship.
Katherine was just mad at Lina and Jamie for inheriting the house instead of her, even though she was the one who brought Lina out of poverty. The young girl, on the other hand, had only wanted Katherine to truly love her, but her arrogance made any efforts useless.
It was only when Katherine was desperate, scared, and on the verge of losing Lina that she realized how much she truly cared about her. Without Jamie and Lina, Katherine’s life would be meaningless and empty. Now that Jamie was gone, Lina was her only happiness.
Locked In is a quick psychological thriller with enough suspense to make us watch it, but it has a predictable ending showing what happens when a person gives in to their darkest desires.
At present, Locked In 2023 is available to stream on Netflix.
