With a decent cast and an interesting premise the set-up for Shelter looked good. It might fail to deliver anything original and may well feature some predictably tiresome Hollywood cliches but overall the film is far from the cinematic failure it is being made out to be.

Dr. Cara Jessup (Moore) has made a career out of defying the notion of multiple personality disorders. In the courtroom, her views and testimonies as an expert witness against multiple personality disorders have resulted in the death sentence of more than half a dozen murderers. Cara is devoted to science, but even her husband’s horrific murder did not cause Cara to lose her faith in God. Not so for her young daughter Samantha, a committed unbeliever.

After a particularly troubling court case, Cara’s father Dr. Harding introduces her to his new patient – Adam (Meyers). The more she unearths about Adam, the more her life and those closest to her are endangered. As she explores Adam’s past, Cara’s world begins to fall apart and she is forced to question her strong beliefs in science and in God. Racing against the clock to solve the mystery surrounding Adam, Cara must not lose faith or it could have grave consequences for her and her family.

Just as the film initially focuses on Adam’s dual and dueling personalities so the story develops into a battle of two styles. On one hand we get the intricate and impressively performed psychological thriller (with Moore and Meyers on great form) and on the the other side we get a preposterous supernatural angle. It’s unfortunate that the plot decides to nail its colours to the mast so early, as the idea of it possibly being an extensive mind-fuck of a set-up was an intriguing one.

Once the Witch Mountain element is introduced fully, you rapidly lose interest in following this film through to its conclusion. It also takes away from the moments when Meyers and Moore appear to be out-spooking one another with cleverly crafted scenes that hint at the great potential.

It’s been two years since this film was made, and for whatever reason it has been sat on the shelf. We’ve seen plenty worse this year so this is by no mean one to avoid but perhaps the whiff of direct to DVD is hanging over it.