Movie Primer: Shutter Island

This is a short primer for thriller Shutter Island. This film will try its best to scare the pants of you starting October 2nd, 2009. The trailer for this film can be found at http://www.apple.com/trailers/paramount/shutterisland/hd/

The Plot: Teddy Daniels and Chuck Aule are U.S. Marshals investigating a most unusual case in 1954. An inmate in the countries highest security mental hospital has some how escaped and the two agents have to track her down. Things become complicated when the two marshals find that the hospital staff might be deceiving them and Teddy, a WW2 vet, starts having strange visions. Then a hurricane hits and a riot breaks out in the hospital. What started off as a simple missing persons case might end up testing the two agents sanity and costing them their lives.

Star Power: There are almost too many great actors in this film to name. Leonardo DiCaprio, who is a recent favorite of the director of the film Martin Scorsese, is playing Teddy Daniels. Mark Ruffalo plays the other marshal Chuck. Ben Kingsley plays the head of the mental hospital. Michelle Williams plays a woman who man simply be a figment of Teddy's imagination and Jackie Earle Haley, last seen in Watchmen, plays one of the patients.

Behind the Screen: Dennis Lehane wrote the chilling novel for which this movie is based off of and Martin Scorsese is not the first to try to make it as a movie. For some reason Columbia pictures let the movie go and the script written by Laeta Kalgridis (the writer behind Night Watch) ended up at Scorsese doorstep. Scorsese must have liked what he saw because soon he was working to make the movie happen. Part of the film was shot in an actual abandoned mental hospital to help create the stunning visuals of the movie.

What to expect: At first glance this does not seem like the type of movie that Scorsese would make. The feel of this movie and the story presented is purely horror but most people forget that it was Scorsese who brought us another head-trip of a thriller known as Cape Fear. It is a rare treat when a highly talented filmmaker creates a horror movie and by the looks of it Shutter Island is going to be amazing. The cast is simply perfect. The visuals from the preview gave me chills. This will be one of those films that will be hard to shake once you watch it. I am expecting very good things.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1232207/
http://www.apple.com/trailers/independent/capitalismalovestory/