Shutter Island

Little White Lies“It is a film fat with atmosphere...” Shutter Island is cinematically gorgeous; cut with thick chiaroscuro lighting that intensifies the feeling of claustrophobia resonating from the prison come hospital walls. It’s a well acted film, too...

The Independent“DiCaprio is very compelling as the frazzled hero...” More audacious, challenging and downright entertaining than most Hollywood genre movies today. And watch for the shower head from Psycho – a rare example of a star cameo from a plumbing attachment...

Guardian“Impressively acted, superbly designed, atmospherically lit...” The movie does not perhaps dig quite as deeply into the period as Todd Haynes's Far From Heaven, for which Powell also designed the costumes. But it is a film that, like Psycho (to which it inevitably nods at one point), we will need to revisit...

Empire“Scorsese enjoys himself here...” Once you get past the trickery, it offers sumptuous, enthralling, shivery gothic filmmaking with a hardboiled heart and a sly line in asylum humour. If a pot is being boiled, at least it’s an intricately-decorated pot on a spectacular fire...

Variety“A dark, intense thriller...” Expert, screw-turning narrative filmmaking put at the service of old-dark-madhouse claptrap, Shutter Island arguably occupies a similar place in Martin Scorsese's filmography as The Shining does in Stanley Kubrick's...

Time Out film“An intense and often bleak psychological puzzle...” Scorsese is still experimenting and fighting with the medium in his fifth decade of filmmaking and remains daring enough to take risks and trust the intelligence of his audience. So, there’s much to enjoy...

The Times“The spirit of Alfred Hitchcock is clearly alive and well...” Scorsese constructs the film like a conjuror, each new reveal matched with another sleight of hand. There is a method to what might at first seem to be overcooked madness...

this is london“Effects to make us shiver... ” Scorsese orchestrates all this as if it were a horror story matched with a Victorian melodrama and while it works in spasms, it frequently fails to deliver on the level of realistic drama...

The Telegraph“Gonzo-Gothic Fifties asylum thriller...” The plot doesn’t so much thicken as curdle with every heebie-jeebie encounter – we’ve taken a U-turn at the terrific Cape Fear and wound up at Cape Folly...

Total Film “Resembling a psychotropic reverie or unhinged fever dream...” Shutter Island finds Scorsese at his most technically accomplished. Some may find it emotionally distant and cold to the touch, yet that’s no slight on its superb construction and fine ensemble cast...