HallowScream - Shutter Island (2010)

      Hey guys, Chuck here. Well, it's spooky season once again, which means HallowScream begins again. To kick things off, let's take a look at Martin Scorsese's 2010 thriller Shutter Island, based on the novel by Dennis Lehane, and starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Mark Ruffalo, Michelle Williams, Emily Mortimer, Ted Levine, Jackie Earle Haley, Patricia Clarkson, Max Von Sydow, and Ben Kingsley. 

       The movie focuses on a pair of U.S. Marshals, Edward "Teddy" Daniels, a war veteran who was at the liberation of Dachau, and Chuck Aule, who are sent to investigate the disappearance of a patient from Ashecliffe, a mental hospital located on Shutter Island and built from a military compound left over from the Civil War. Teddy and Chuck are taken from the docks to Ashecliffe by the facility's deputy warden, who explains the three main wards: Ward A for male patients, Ward B for female patients, and Ward C for the most dangerous patients on the island, with restricted access to only authorized personnel or written consent from the head doctor, Dr. Cawley. In addition, as per a Federal Code pertaining to penitentiaries and institutions, both Teddy and Chuck are required to surrender their firearms before entering Ashecliffe. 

        So, upon meeting Dr. Cawley, we learn that Teddy and Chuck were called in to investigate the disappearance of a patient named Rachel Solando, who vanished under mysterious circumstances, and there is no trace of her anywhere around the island. As for why she was sent to Ashecliffe, she apparently drowned her three children, two sons and a daughter, in the lake behind their home. But, she is delusional, and acts as if she's still at home, and everyone in the facility is a friend or neighbor. 

         Investigating the grounds, questioning the staff, and questioning other patients, we learn that Rachel's primary doctor, Dr. Sheehan, is not on the island, and many are tight-lipped about a patient Teddy asks about: a man named Andrew Laeddis. Who is Andrew Laeddis? A maintenance man who is a pyromaniac, and is responsible for starting a fire that burned the apartment Teddy and his deceased wife, Dolores, lived in, and she died in the fire due to the smoke. Teddy, evidently, spent years trying to find Laeddis, and was able to learn more about Ashecliffe from a former patient: George Noyce. 

       But, Dr Cawley meets with the two Marshals, informing them that Rachel had been found safe and sound. But, she acts slightly clueless, and briefly sees Teddy as her deceased husband. Whoops. The next day, Teddy and Chuck investigate Ward C, where Teddy reunites with George Noyce, who tells him that he either needs to move on from the past, or investigate the lighthouse. After exiting the ward, Teddy and Chuck look out at the bluffs, and Chuck disappears, and Teddy goes after him, finding a cave. 

       In the cave is the TRUE Rachel Solando, who was a former doctor, who discovered that Ashecliffe was using the lighthouse to perform very same experiments on mental patients that the Germans were doing back in World War II to inmates of camps like Auschwitz and Dachau. And, upon this discovery, she was deemed insane, and made a patient at the very facility she was a doctor at. The next morning, she sends Teddy back, as she plans to find another cave to hide in, and warns him about the staff. 

       Teddy, who is getting set to leave due to the investigation being finished, seeks information about Chuck, but is told by Dr. Cawley that he had no partner and came to Ashecliffe alone. Knowing this is a lie, Teddy blows up Dr. Cawley's car as a diversion, and breaks into the lighthouse. But, instead of Chuck, he finds Dr. Cawley at a desk, who asks him something he asked the spirit of his wife Dolores in a dream: "Why are you all wet, baby?" 

       And it's here where we learn the truth: neither Teddy Daniels nor Rachel Solando are real people. Teddy, it turns out, is actually named Andrew Laeddis, the very man Teddy was searching for. And, Laeddis is a former Marshal committed to Ashecliffe for killing his wife, Dolores, because she drowned their children in the lake behind their home, which they moved to after she set their city apartment on fire. The little girl that Teddy/Andrew kept seeing, was his daughter Rachel Laeddis, who drowned along with her brothers, Simon and Henry, because Dolores was manic depressive. And instead of getting her help, Andrew drank a lot and focused on his job as a Marshal. Oh, and it turns out that Chuck was, in actuality, Dr. Lester Sheehan, Andrew's primary doctor. 

       As for the investigation, the moniker of Teddy Daniels, and everything we'd been seeing throughout the movie? Well, this was a fantasy that Andrew created due to the fact that he couldn't live with the guilt of his crime. And Dr. Cawley, hopeful that he and Dr. Sheehan could break through, sought to allow Andrew to let his fantasy play out, and seeing the falseness of it all could snap him back. If not, and this experimental roleplay therapy fails, then Andrew would be lobotomized. 

       After accepting reality, it seems that Andrew is finally on the right path. But, the next day, while having a cigarette with Dr. Sheehan, Andrew refers to him as "Chuck," implying that he's regressed again. But, he says something that leaves Dr. Sheehan puzzled: " Which is better: to live as a monster, or die as a good man?" And, the movie ends with Andrew following doctors and the Warden to head out to be lobotomized. 

       Shutter Island is, genuinely, unsettling in its overall tone and design. The locations are unsettling, the music is very eerie and good at setting the tone, and the performances can, at times, be quite disturbing. Leonardo DiCaprio and Mark Ruffalo work really well together as Teddy and Chuck, and Ben Kingsley delivers a fantastic performance as Dr. Cawley. Michelle Williams as Dolores is fantastic, and Max Von Sydow was genuinely unsettling as Dr. Naering. The twist ending, revealing that Teddy was actually Andrew Laeddis, and he was a patient at Ashecliffe the entire time, was definitely an unexpected twist, and easily one of the most surprising twists on film. 

      Overall, Martin Scorsese took the novel by Dennis Lehane, which was already a very chilling book, and delivered a thoroughly chilling movie that is definitely worthy of a watch for the Halloween season. 

       Alright guys, this is Chuck signing off, and HallowScream is only just getting started.