Five-Legged Iguana

¡QUÉ HORROR! 2011
Candidate # 24

SHELTER
(February 2009)


I’ll admit: this was a pleasant surprise.
I went into Måns Mårlind & Björn Stein’s Shelter largely because, a) it sported a fine cast (Julianne Moore, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Jeffrey DeMunn, and Frances Conroy), and b) I was curious; I may not have been thrilled with Identity-- a title previously penned by Shelter’s writer, Michael Cooney-- but it was nonetheless, an ambitious bit of screenwriting, so I wanted to see what Cooney had come up with here.
Shelter starts off as a psychological thriller with Moore as a self-professed “doctor of science and woman of God,” who looks into Rhys Meyers’ (head)case. The film then unwinds in an interesting and involving manner, and while what it eventually ends up being may not be entirely new and original, it’s still an excellently executed bit of genre that’s worth a look.
And it was definitely a better ride than Identity turned out to be…

(Shelter OS courtesy of impawards.com.)