Unlocked (스마트폰을 떨어뜨렸을 뿐인데) is a thriller film written and directed by Kim Tae-joon and stars Chun Woo-hee, Yim Si-wan, Kim Hie-won and Park Ho-san, alongside other cast members. The movie has a runtime of 117 minutes.
Netflix’s description of the film reads:
A woman’s life is turned upside-down when a dangerous man gets a hold of her lost cell phone and uses it to track her every move.
– Unlocked Review Does Not Contain Spoilers –
Before the actual horror starts in Unlocked, we get a glimpse into how addicted and utterly dependent we are on our devices. It has everything to let us know that there’s something eerie going on here and that all the excitement and following around can only spell doom in the upcoming minutes. Which is not wrong – the story takes a turn for the darker within 5 minutes of the initial adrenaline rush, and Yim Si-wan provides a compelling watch as someone who is quite mysterious at first glance.
Digressing from the Unlocked review, watching a subject matter such as this is my worst nightmare, especially when you have an Android phone. The fact that it can happen (maybe not this conveniently) is what keeps me up at night and makes you wonder whether our cell phones really are becoming the doorways to something more horrible.
If you’re afraid of the horrors that cell phones can bring into your life, then Unlocked is not going to scratch that itch for you, unfortunately. Sure, it looks great, and the antagonist is quite eerie, but the movie is pretty bland and extremely cliché. It flows in the way you’d expect it to and you can mostly see the twists from a mile away.
It’s sad how a 2023 movie set in a world that relies entirely on its smart devices offers no interesting insights into something so fear-inducing. I mean, spywares are very real and an extremely real possibility in today’s world. However, we see nothing new that the film brings to the table, instead simply relying on everything that we have known for so long and presenting it on a prettier plate.
Moreover, the movie is rather unbelievable and unrealistic in some cases. It conveniently makes these things happen one after another as if it’s all so easy. The cat and mouse chase was fun a few years ago, but it’s just becoming slightly annoying at this point. It’s also interesting how Yim’s character, although having potential, also ends up being a rather one-dimensional caricature of the sadist psychopath that we have seen at least a dozen times over the past year.
There’s also a subplot of the antagonist’s father following his own son around because of a hunch that he might be the serial killer, and that’s an angle that we should’ve been seeing from the first. I wish this didn’t turn into what we have now but rather was about this father trying to find his murderous son. But alas, the ending of this story lacks every bit of thrill that you’d expect after the initial burst of energy and intrigue.
The ending, also, is rather cliched and ends conveniently in a way that you would expect from the first. It’s the easiest to make and digest, gives people hope and ends off with a subtle reminder that you can be in trouble regardless of how careful you are. There’s nothing new about the ending, and the movie can’t create that thrill either wherein you wonder what can happen – can Na-mi survive or not? Will the antagonist be caught, or will he get away? The movie doesn’t give you a chance to even think about the possibilities for a second. It’s pretty cut and dry and, thus, extremely boring.
Summing Up: Unlocked
Unlocked is a tried and tested movie that leaves nothing to the imagination. It’s stuff we have seen several times before and, thus, will leave you feeling rather bored. It squanders some very interesting moments that had the potential to be something more than we are left with and, all in all, will make you feel rather disappointed.
Unlocked is streaming on Netflix.
Also Read: Netflix’s The Call Review: Another Amazing South Korean Thriller