[TAKE SHELTER is now available on home video.]
Review by Bob Ignizio
I first became aware of the excellent actor Michael Shannon in BUG, that was doomed by a misleading market campaign that made it appear to be a straight forward horror film instead of the psychological drama with horror elements that it was. TAKE SHELTER could almost be a companion piece to that film. It's quieter and more grounded in reality, but once again Shannon plays a man whose sanity is in question, and while by no means a horror film it does use some techniques of the genre.
Curtis (Shannon) is a hard-working regular guy who is either beginning to experience the onset of schizophrenia, an affliction that runs in his family, or having psychic flashes of a grim future where friends, neighbors and trusted pets attack like they're in a zombie movie and a storm rains brown water. Curtis recognizes that he may have an illness, but he has a hard time reaching out for help. Eventually he does see a psychiatrist, but to hedge his bets he begins taking precautions to protect his family – wife Samatha (Jessica Chastain) and hearing-impaired daughter Hannah (Tova Stewart). While caging up the lovable family dog and enlarging his backyard storm shelter seem reasonable actions to Curits, to everyone else he seems a little bit crazy. But what if he's right?
