Don’t Move Review: Thrills Paralyzed by Missteps
Directors: Brian Netto, Adam Schindler
Writers: T.J. Cimfel, David White
Reviewer: Sneha Jaiswal (Twitter | Instagram)
If a strange woman shows up on your remote property, unable to move, unable to talk, and clearly distressed, wouldn’t you immediately call emergency services and request assistance? Apparently not. Even if you’re a smart, experienced man with no ill intentions toward the woman.
That’s one of the biggest problems with the 2024 thriller movie Don’t Move – illogical character decisions make the film more frustrating to watch than thrilling. The premise is intense: Kelsey Asbille plays a grieving mother named Iris, targeted by a serial killer (Finn Wittrock) who injects her with a paralytic agent. She must find a way to escape his clutches before her entire body shuts down. Her survival instincts kick in almost immediately, but it’s a race against her own body for Iris.
Don’t Move begins with a poignant scene of Iris visiting her son’s memorial at a national park. There, a stranger strikes up a conversation with her. While their brief interaction is initially life-changing in a positive way for Iris, it takes a scarily dark turn when he kidnaps her. Unfolding largely in the wild, the movie offers an engaging juxtaposition of serene, scenic forested landscapes and the dangerously deadly predicament Iris finds herself in.
Finn Wittrock is a good fit for the role of the serial killer. With his good looks, he embodies the kind of man women might unknowingly trust, while deftly channelling the cold, calculating confidence of a predatory psychopath. That said, he isn’t as scarily intimidating as many other memorable onscreen villains—take Stephen Lang, for example, who played the blind murderer in Don’t Breathe, another thriller produced by Sam Raimi (also the producer of Don’t Move).
The cinematography, the acting, and the background music are all adequately engaging. But the most important ingredient—the writing—is sorely lacking. Nowhere near as tense or nail-biting as Don’t Breathe, this thriller is just about passable in the genre.
Rating: 5/10. You can watch the film on Netflix.
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