Taglines: You can hide, but you can’t run.
Don’t Move movie storyline. Iris is grieving for her young son Mateo, who died during a family hiking trip. She visits the site of his death and, inconsolable, considers jumping off a cliff. A man appears, who introduces himself as Richard, and after talking to him for a few minutes, Iris changes her mind. She follows Richard back to their parked cars. At the cars he attacks her with a stun device. Incapacitated, he then ties her wrists and ankles with zip ties before placing her in the back of his car.
Iris recovers consciousness as Richard is driving them to a remote cabin he knows, where he tells her they will have “all weekend” together. Iris uses her pocket knife to cut the tie on her wrists, and she attacks Richard, causing him to crash the car. The two fight briefly, but Iris manages to get out of the car and cut the tie securing her ankles. But Richard then shows her a syringe and tells her that during their skirmish he injected her with a paralysing agent, which will gradually render her helpless over the space of about 20 minutes.
Iris runs off into the woods, with Richard following at a leisurely pace, as he knows the injection will soon take effect. But as Iris slowly loses the use of her limbs, she makes it to a river and floats downstream on her back. Washing up further down the shore, she uses the last of her mobility to drag herself on to dry land.
Don’t Move is a 2024 American thriller film starring Kelsey Asbille, Finn Wittrock, Moray Treadwell, Daniel Francis, Denis Kostadinov, Kate Nichols, Dylan Beam and Skye Little Wing Dimov Saw. It was directed by Adam Schindler and Brian Netto, and written by TJ Cimfel and David White. Netflix released the film on October 25, 2024.
Film Review for Don’t Move
Back in 2016, Sam Raimi lent his name as producer to high-concept horror-thriller Don’t Breathe – a home-invasion tale with a nasty twist. Nearly a decade later, he’s back as producer on high-concept horror-thriller Don’t Move – and while it’s not part of any kind of ‘Don’t Cinematic Universe’, it’s another short, sharp genre shocker with plenty of punch.
This time, the hook is that it’s a cat-and-mouse serial-killer thriller, with a mouse who can’t actually run away. That’s because Iris (an impressive Kelsey Asbille) – mourning the loss of her son, considering suicide at the start of the film – has been injected with a “special relaxant” by the stranger who convinced her not to jump. She has 20 minutes until it takes effect, he tells her, and over the course of that time her body will become increasingly unresponsive. While the effects aren’t permanent, it’ll take a while for her motor functions to kick back into gear. The game, then, isn’t just about whether Iris can escape her killer – it’s whether she can play the long game and survive long enough until she regains autonomy.
Directors Adam Schindler and Brian Netto keep the pace up, constantly evolving the premise in novel ways, changing the stakes of the chase to keep things fresh over the course of 90 largely taut minutes. Along the way, Iris battles an ants’ nest, raging rapids, and an incoming lawnmower, all while trying to signal to strangers for help while unable to move anything more than her eyeballs. Asbille smartly modulates her performance, always believable in portraying Iris’ varying states of mobility, while Finn Wittrock is menacing enough as ‘Richard’ (or is he?), the killer who gets more than he bargained for with his latest prey.
The results are consistently engaging and well-calibrated for Friday-night Netflix viewing – a bright calling card for its filmmakers, even if it isn’t destined to live long in the memory. An attempt to give Richard some motivation in the final reel feels unnecessary, and despite some crunchy moments of violence, there isn’t any one sequence set to go down in horror history. But it’s well-made popcorn entertainment just in time for Halloween – and since it’s streaming straight to your living room, you can watch it right now. You don’t even have to move.
Pacy thrills are doled out in a solid Sam Raimi-approved pulse-raiser with a few nifty ideas up its sleeve. Shall we try ‘Don’t Smell’ next?
Don’t Move (2024)
Directed by: Adam Schindler, Brian Netto
Starring: Kelsey Asbille, Finn Wittrock, Moray Treadwell, Daniel Francis, Denis Kostadinov, Kate Nichols, Dylan Beam, Skye Little Wing Dimov Saw
Screenplay by: TJ Cimfel, David White
Cinematography by: Zach Kuperstein
Film Editing by: Josh Ethier
Set Decoration by: Margarita Zaharieva
Art Direction by: Maria Paunova
Music by: Mark Korven, Michelle Osis
MPAA Rating: R for some strong violence and language.
Distributed by: Netflix
Release Date: October 25, 2024
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