In Shackled Sarah McDonald (Donna Bradley) is left distraught and deeply grieving after the murder of her brother, Brian (Simon Fogarty.) She returns home to help her father during this difficult time, and to maybe make some sense of her brother's untimely departure. However, even with the assistance of Brian's best friend Michael (Andrew Blaikie), she can't make any sense out of the motive behind his murder.
As if things couldn't be any more confusing, Sarah finds herself conflicted with bizarre dreams about her recently deceased brother, a mysterious mansion, and masked strangers wearing black cloaks. While she sleeps these dreams become more like visions from a previous time lending her clues, and while she is awake she races to put them together with Michael's help. However, the road leads them somewhere she never would have expected, and she is somehow involved. With unexpected roadblocks in the forms of strangers interfering with her journey, Sarah's strength and sanity are both tested. The further she delves into the unknown the more she has to examine her own past to answer not only her brother's mystery, but her role in it as well.
While this movie doesn't deliver on the gore, it is not your traditional horror film and shouldn't be held to such standards. Shackled is much more psychological than the average horror film. It does a very good job of putting you inside Sarah's mind, and following her along a strange and twisted journey into a bigger world she had no idea she was a part of before Brian's death.
