Take Shelter (2011)

Drama, Thriller

Director: Jeff Nichols
Writer: Jeff Nichols
Starring: Michael Shannon, Jessica Chastain, Tova Stewart, Shea Whigham

"Twill be a storm!"

After his debut with Shotgun Stories, writer-director Jeff Nichols (Mud) once again teams up with actor Michael Shannon for a haunting tale that will creep under your skin and expose your darkest fears.

After experiencing a series of terrifying apocalyptic nightmares that slowly turn into waking hallucinations, Curtis LaForche (Shannon) begins building a shelter to protect his wife (Jessica Chastain) and his hearing-impaired daughter from the disaster that is coming according to his dark visions. Slowly, he finds his whole life falling apart, as his seemingly inexplicable behavior concerns and confounds those closest to him and everyone around him starts to believe he is going insane.

With a Michael Shannon – in our opinion, one of the most underrated actors in Hollywood – offering a strong an haunting performance as the tormented man who crumbles under the weight of real-life problems, Take Shelter is a powerful psychological thriller that is a disturbing tale for our times, putting into mainstream view what severely mentally disturbed people suffer everyday.

Plot summary from IMDb: Curtis, a father and husband, is starting to experience bad dreams and hallucinations. Assuming mental illness, he seeks medical help and counseling. However, fearing the worst, he starts building an elaborate and expensive storm shelter in their backyard. This storm shelter threatens to tear apart his family, threatens his sanity and his standing in the community, but he builds it to save his family's life.

Awards: 44 wins & 29 nominations.
Runtime: 120 min
R