Ben Shapiro’s conservative political site The Daily Wire has decided to start making movies, and while the trailer for their first film Shut In seems like your run-of-the-mill indie horror movie, it is the cast that has us rolling our eyes—mainly that known racist and antisemite Vincent Gallo is starring in the film. Gallo, who directed Brown Bunny, is not exactly known for his talent in Hollywood, so this triumphant return to acting seems more like a political move than anything else.
The description for the film is as follows: “When a young mother is barricaded inside a pantry by her violent ex-boyfriend, she must use ingenuity to protect her two small children from escalating danger while finding an escape.” And as we can see in the trailer, it has Christian themes (or just Rainey Qualley holding a crucifix) and is filled with questionable men! So … basically, what we all expected out of this entire situation.
So, as I said, your run-of-the-mill indie horror movie—this time, with Jesus.
“Cancellation” and The Daily Wire
The whole reason behind Ben Shapiro’s foray into movies is because of “cancel culture”—that and, I suppose, the knowledge that Shapiro is a failed screenwriter, which explains why he went full right-wing conspiracy theorist and is angry at the world. How dare we tell a white man that his movie ideas are bad!
In all seriousness, it clearly started because Shapiro saw an opportunity for himself with the actors that Hollywood had “ousted.” Most recently, Shapiro and former star of The Mandalorian Gina Carano teamed up after the actress mocked the idea of specifying pronouns in your Twitter bio, spread conspiracy theories, and compared being a Republican to being Jewish in the Holocaust—just to set the scene for the kind of people that Shapiro wants to work with.
He started this as a way to hire those that Hollywood has “cast out” for their “political views.” In reality, it isn’t that they’re Republicans. It is that all these “canceled” people have done something offensive or harmful that got them ousted, but telling them that is like telling a child they can’t play with their favorite toy.
For Shut In, the inclusion of Vincent Gallo is problematic all on its own, given that he was famous for the controversy around a movie that featured Chloë Sevigny performing non-simulated oral sex on him, and then he went on to become a homophobic, sexist troll of a man publishing an “open letter” talking about his past and his problematic views.
Pair that with the movie being produced by Cinestate’s own Dallas Sonnier and this movie is just a Republican’s dream and everyone else’s worse nightmare. Rainey Qualley, what are you doing?
Daily Wire’s movie slate
The other movie we know that Daily Wire is working on is called Terror on the Prairie, starring Carano, about a family on a farm fighting for their land from outlaws. Honestly, none of this is surprising given who is making these movies. Like … of course Republicans want to watch a woman fight for her family using the power of Christ to guide her or a family of pioneers fighting outlaws for their land. All of this just checks out.
According to Pajiba, Shut In will be available for free on YouTube for one night, before it is available only to subscribers of The Daily Wire. So … at least we know that the movies that The Daily Wire is making are exactly the kind of movies we expected: Filled with people who faced consequences for their actions and were “canceled” and are just mediocre ideas for screenplays at best.
(via Pajiba, image: NBC)
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