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Any fan of true crime podcasts will tell you the cardinal rule of staying alive: never get in the trunk of a stranger’s car. You lose the ability to control your location and your odds of survival dramatically decrease once the lid of this mobile prison slams down on your head. But what if avoiding the trunk is no longer an option? What if you awaken to find yourself trapped in the boot of a stranger’s car as it speeds down the highway? Marc Schießer’s Trunk – Locked In explores this claustrophobic nightmare with an intimate story told from inside the rear compartment of a kidnapper’s vehicle. Despite its limiting premise, this German film unfolds at a breakneck pace as a kidnapped woman must use all the tools at her disposal before reaching a final destination that will mean certain death.
Malina (Sina Martens) comes back to reality as rain falls on her cheeks. She sits up quickly and bangs her head on the lid of an open trunk. Trying to get her bearings, Malina takes a few moments to look around at the dark alleyway before feigning sleep as a mysterious stranger approaches with a gun on his hip. He proceeds to close and lock the lid, trapping Malina in a waking nightmare. Even worse, she overhears the driver making ominous plans for a 4:30 a.m. rendezvous at which point his partner can “have whatever’s left of her.” Luckily Malina still has her cell phone and a mobile camera that may contain images of the captor. With her boyfriend Enno (Artjom Gilz) missing and her family less than helpful, Malina must turn to her only remaining alli – a friendly police officer determined to get her home safe.
Told almost entirely from the perspective of the abducted woman, Trunk – Locked In would easily fall apart without a strong central performance. Fortunately Martens is more than up for the task. Anchoring every scene, she carries the film with a captivating blend of vulnerability, horror, and strength. Early indicators that this character may be an incompetent slacker turn out to be grave miscalculations and Malina proves incredibly resourceful in these dire circumstances. A former surgeon, she investigates the contents of the trunk, performs grueling first aid on her own body, and challenges her captor from the rear of the car all while navigating the complicated relationship that may be the key to her captivity. Luise Helm keeps the story moving as Elisa Kühne, the police officer trying to locate Malina. Moments where she can be heard shouting information at fellow officers sharply contrast with the soothing patter she uses to keep Malina calm, underlining the desperate stakes of this rescue as time runs out.
Taking a cue from Rodrigo Cortés’s 2010 film Buried, Schießer makes the most of his limited real estate. We do catch the occasional glimpse of the outside world, but 99% of the film takes place inside the trunk. On paper, this may seem like a boring procedural, but Schießer pushes the film along at an impressive pace. A peek through a broken tail light reveals a high speed chase down a busy highway. Would-be saviors fall short and cars tumble across the road as Malina speeds by, forced to watch this carnage through a tiny peephole. Malina may be stuck, but the dirty car is not. We constantly feel driving motion and the injured girl slams back and forth in the filthy trunk as the car swerves and screeches to a halt on the rainy streets. Schießer’s strong script adds dynamic emotional beats as Malina and Elisa try and exhaust multiple avenues for salvation.
Though ostensibly an action horror film, Trunk – Locked In takes an interesting detour into the world of urban legends. With the drugs wearing off, Malina notices an open wound on her lower back. It seems she has fallen victim to the dreaded Kidney Heist and her captors have carelessly removed the valuable organ. This leads to a grisly moment of self-surgery as Malina is forced to save her own life without the luxury of calling for help. In addition to this classic tale, Schießer examines newer stories of human trafficking and random abduction. The first thing Malina does after realizing she’s trapped is google “how to get out of a trunk” only to find that the often shared strategies don’t help much when faced with the real thing. We also see a video of the moment Malina is abducted and wonder what we would do when presented with the same choice. Schießer confronts the well-worn true crime advice from the inside, revealing that while awareness can be helpful, it does not solve the problem on its own.
Despite this powerful execution, a few moments do feel a bit sour. Dutch actor Poal Cairo is sufficiently menacing as the unnamed driver, though his attempts at an American accent feel stilted and clunky. A few red herrings could likely be excised from the story to focus more on Malina’s survival and there are aspects of Elisa’s attempted rescue that don’t seem to make sense. This is not to mention the fact that Malina still has her phone at all – her abductors having neglected to check her pockets for this life saving device. But these moments of confusion fall away with the rapidly unfolding action. Questionable logic aside, we don’t begrudge Malina strokes of serendipitous luck because we’re honestly rooting for her to find her way out.
Part whodunit, part action horror, part survival thriller, Trunk – Locked In is a harrowing journey out of the mouth of hell. As the movie unfolds in real time, Malina becomes our avatar for survival and we constantly ask ourselves if we could be this resourceful given the same scenario. With a breathless ending and a surprising amount of action sequences, Schießer’s film proves to be much more than the sum of its parts. Examining stories we’ve all heard a million times, we watch and hope that Malina will find a way out of her traveling prison. Because if she can save herself, maybe we can too.
