Shutter Island

(Martin Scorcese, 2010)

alone, 86th St. Loews, 3/8/10

8

Not so much scary as profoundly disturbing, Shutter Island is that rare horror movie that successfully evokes real-life horrors: guilt, loss, insanity, genocide.  Slow-building and overheated, it has a curious power all its own, as if the film itself has been steeped in madness.  Several recognizable actors have memorable one-scene appearances — Emily Mortimer, Patricia Clarkson, Elias Koteas, Jackie Earle Haley — which gives the movie an episodic feel.  Not a feel-good movie, but sort of deliciously bleak.