A remote estate rumored to house a fabulous treasure. 5 thieves looking for the heist of a lifetime. 2 women who are not supposed to exist. 1 serial killer who controls everything. 0 ways out. They are all Locked In.

ALT: Two brothers, thieves, believe that a long-lost art collection worth millions is hidden in the sprawling mansion of a reclusive billionaire, but their target turns out to be a serial killer and the house an inescapable fortress.

SYNOPSIS:

Michael Nolan picks up his older brother Richard on his release from prison in upstate New York. The men are career thieves with moderate talent and major dreams. Richard is the hardened criminal, for Michael it’s a whim, a chance to experiment with his technological “toys”. Driving back to the city, they talk about the famous 1990 heist at the Isabella Stuart Gardner Museum in Boston. Two men posed as policemen, tied up the guards, disabled the security system and disappeared with priceless works including several Rembrandt’s. The art has never been found. No suspects.

Richard relates a “death-bed confession” he heard in prison: an old lifer claimed reclusive billionaire John Hammerick was one of the “cops”. What if Hammerick still has the loot at his isolated mansion? Michael scopes out Hammerick’s isolated country estate using a small camera drone. A Napoleonic regimental flag finial that was part of the museum heist tops a flagpole in the estate’s courtyard. Bingo!

The brothers enlist Ray (safe-cracker), Big Jim (the muscle) and Donny (an art expert) to join the team. They learn Hammerick is a bachelor who lives alone. And he has plans to travel to Boston. The house will be empty! If you steal from a thief, he cannot go to the police. Could it be more perfect? Get in. Find the art. Get out. Simple! But when the men break into the house, it is not empty. A woman, Jennifer, and her 16 year-old daughter Denise claim to be both Hammerick’s family… and his prisoners. They claim to know nothing about the missing art. Richard, furious that his plans for the score of a life time are falling apart, threatens the women. As he appears ready to use a knife to make his point…

John Hammerick suddenly appears, his trip to Boston cancelled. He is very cavalier for someone faced with 5 armed intruders. Where’s my safe?The whole house is a safe. But don’t think of it as a safe house. And by the way, please don’t think about leaving. You are locked in!Hammerick vanishes before the men can grab him. A series of clunks and clicks echo as the house is locked down. The doors and windows are bullet-proof. The stone walls are impervious to penetration. Hammerick controls the locks on every door. He controls audio and video feeds in every room. Even the lights. And he has secret passages that allow him to appear and disappear at will as he toys with the thieves who have broken into his house and taken his captive “family” captive.

A deadly game of cat-and-mouse begins as the men comb the house for Hammerick and the lost art. The thieves find themselves locked in a nightmare fight for their lives. Hammerick taunts the men with self-delighting humor.

Richard ultimately tracks Hammerick, or rather is steered, to a basement lair that houses dark secrets. Newspaper clippings, photographs and personal trophies reveal that John Hammerick is the New England Nightmare serial killer. Among the grisly trophies is the mummified head of a woman: I see you’ve met my trophy wife.Hammerick kills Richard in full view of the others then vanishes into the darkness. “We’ve Only Just Begun” echoes through the mansion. Don’t you just love Karen Carpenter?

Jennifer & Denise have competing flirtations with Michael, further infuriating Hammerick. With a collection of archaic weapons – a crossbow, a Gurkha knife, a Samurai sword - he picks the thieves off one-by-one until only Michael is left. The final battle between Michael and Hammerick ends in hand-to-hand combat with the women as horrified witnesses. Both men die – it is over.

The next morning the police find Denise, bare-foot, bloody and dazed, wandering the grounds of the estate - the apparent sole survivor. The public is stunned by the news of model-citizen John Hammerick’s secret life as a serial killer.

One year later, in a Ferrari on the tree-lined drive of the estate she has inherited, there is something different about Denise. She unrolls a bundle on canvases – a Rembrandt, a Vermeer, a Degas. She dreamily recalls the final moments of that day. How it was she who killed Michael. And how she whispered in her father’s ear, I love you, Daddy. But I can’t be your little angel forever. I’m so much like you. Just before she plunged a knife deep into his chest.

With a smile, she roars off through the fall colors, Karen Carpenter singing “We’ve Only Just Begun” on the stereo.