There’s something unnerving about the silence of the deep ocean. The pressure forces. The deep, dark blackness. This is the setting of Locker, the debut feature from Australian writer/director Peter Ninos that is inspired by the 2023 Titan submersible tragedy. The horror of this micro-budget film comes from its minimalist yet claustrophobic atmosphere as the survival drama mines real life for true terror that does well in the beginning and literally makes the audience scream for all the wrong reasons.
Locker is set entirely within the confines of a fictional deep-sea submersible, which works considering the many genre films set in a single room, a cabin, and even the truck of a moving vehicle. This setting quickly becomes both a sanctuary and a prison for its four characters. Captain Marcus Graves (Vincent Donato), his son David (Matt Visciglio) who suffers from claustrophobia, a social media influencer named Jackson Rex (Marcus Catt), and Titanic-obsessed historian Alejo Miguel Delgado (Paulo Castro) descend to the wreck of the R.M.S. Titanic When their vessel suffers a catastrophic failure and becomes trapped on the ocean floor, what was meant to be a deep-sea adventure turns into a hallucinatory death watch.
As oxygen runs low and paranoia mounts, Locker leans into tension rather than spectacle. This is a quiet film, one that relies on atmosphere, performance, and direction to keep its grip on you. The pacing is deliberate—at times even sluggish, which, unfortunately, coupled with low-key performances, an unnecessary story that looks like padding, it turns very close into a snoozer. If one is to have this type of tension, it must be offset by other tangible terrors and ideas, hence why so many horror films inject comedy or attempt at it. The pacing of the screenplay of the film itself it about forty-five minutes too long, making this a painful experience. Some witty moments look tossed in, like trying to figure out what to do with the defecation of a Portuguese curry dish in a closed environment.
“Locker is set entirely within the confines of a fictional deep-sea submersible…”
This is not a four-hander theatrical piece on stage, hence it needs to be pushed. There are moments where the script dwells a little too long on inner conflict or stretches scenes that could have benefited from a tighter edit. And while the writing offers moments of introspection, you end up not caring. Dialogue occasionally drifts into melodrama, particularly when the film leans too hard into philosophical musings on mortality, legacy, and guilt. Yet, in a setting so removed from the world above, these themes feel tacked on.
The performances do help in some cases. Vincent Donato brings a grizzled assurance to the role of Captain Graves, while Marcus Catt is just as obnoxious as Jackson the influencer, whose initial cool gives way to fear and vulnerability. The chemistry between the cast, especially between Donato and Visciglio as father and son, has some good moments, yet it feels forced, especially the ending.
Where Locker shines is in its look and feel. Kadison Noack’s cinematography finds inventive if not repetitive ways to make a single space feel dynamic and visually interesting. The camera often lingers on trembling hands, fogged-up helmets, and blinking monitors, emphasizing the small details that matter when your world has shrunk. The sound design with its groans of stressed metal, the hiss of escaping air, and the ever-present heartbeat-like thrum of the ocean, creates an oppressive sound escape.
Locker is a slow watch for those who enjoy that abominable Canadian film Skinnmarik. The film embraces its limitations and tries to give depth in terms of actors who do buy into the world. The trouble is that this is a film, not a news story or a documentary, but a drama that is missing in moments, particularly towards the end. A minimalist deep-sea thriller that could reward some patience with atmosphere
"…mines real life for true terror..."
