There’s a new release date and trailer for the first original movie from conservative news site The Daily Wire. The movie’s called Shut In, and it’ll be released on Feb. 10.
The horror thriller was announced in December, and it features the return of controversial director Vincent Gallo, who has been laying low in the film industry for about a decade. It stars singer and actress Rainey Qualley as a single mother who’s being held prisoner with her two kids by a violent ex.
The movie was filmed in Tennessee. In the trailer, a violent man abuses Qualley’s character and imprisons her. In one scene, she throws a brick through a car window to try and escape while Gallo watches spookily through a window.
“When a young mother is barricaded inside a pantry by her violent ex-boyfriend, she must use ingenuity to protect her two small children from escalating danger while finding an escape,” the film’s synopsis said.
In another scene she’s sleeping on the bathroom floor. It’s atmospheric, bloody and seems like it would be stressful to watch – all positive benchmarks for a horror film. Because it’s the Daily Wire, there’s some pretty obvious Christian imagery and a subplot that seems to involve drugs and the Bible.
D.J. Caruso (Disturbia) directed the movie. Shut In first gained national attention as a 2019 Black List and BloodList script. It was originally going to be produced by New Line and Jason Bateman was attached to direct.
However, it went into development stasis, and eventually, producer Dallas Sonnier took it to The Daily Wire. Ben Shapiro, who runs the conservative news site is also attached as a producer.
Rainey is the older sister of sibling Margaret Qualley, a fairly well-known actor. Her mother is the 1990s movie star Andie Macdowell. Qualley releases music under the name Rainsford.
This isn’t The Daily Wire’s only foray into filmmaking. It famously hired former The Mandalorian star Gina Caruso after she was fired for comparing being anti-vax to being a Jewish person during the Holocaust. That movie is called Terror on the Prairie. There’s no release date for the movie just yet, but it’s expected later this year.
Voltage Pictures is handling the international sales for both films, and Sonnier is attached as well to produce. Sonnier said he liked the freedom of not going through the Hollywood machine.
“With the precariousness of the current Hollywood landscape and the remarkable overreach by its ruling class, we made the tough, but prudent choice to ride further out into the wild west to make movies on our own terms. The Daily Wire has given Gina and our team all the support any producers could ask for. Now, we must go make them proud by producing something that is truly great.”
