DON'T MOVE (2024) - Movie Review

Director: Brian Netto, Adam Schindler
Starring: Kelsey Asbille, Finn Wittrock, Moray Treadwell
Genre: Thriller, Horror
Writer: T.J. Cimfel, David White
Runtime: 92 min
Rated: Rated R for some strong violence and language
Buy This Movie: Netflix

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Synopsis:

When a killer injects her with a paralytic agent, a woman must run, fight and hide before her body completely shuts down.

Review:

A movie directed by Sam Raimi is usually a cinematic treat. A movie produced by Sam Raimi can be a coin toss, resulting in good films like "30 Days of Night", "Don't Breathe" or "Crawl", but also clunkers like "The Grudge" and "Poltergeist" remakes, "The Unholy", "Umma" and "65". The latest Raimi production is the Netflix survival thriller "Don't Move", which tells the story of a grieving young mother (Kelsey Asbille), who must do everything in her power to stay alive after a serial killer injects her with a drug that induces paralysis.

This all happens after roughly 15 minutes of setting up the two characters, followed by a series of different scenarios involving a ticking clock element as the paralytic agent takes 20 minutes to fully kick in. As juicy as the premise might sound, the execution is surprisingly flat and unsuspenseful. Despite a committed lead performance from Asbille, the movie lacks narrative impact. It's predictable and leans hard into plot conveniences. However, it's gravest sin is how utterly generic it is.

A lack of clever camerawork and unimaginative use of the forest locations (shot in Bulgaria), boring dialogue, bland characters with blank personalities, and some serious lapses in logic ultimately drag the movie down. Finn Wittrock is a capable actor, but he isn't given much to do. His villain is paper thin and woefully unintimidating, which undercuts the promise of deeper psychological horror. He's not even an interesting psychopath because there's no real depth to his madness. It's just a plot requirement.

"Don't Move" is a predictable and unremarkable cat-and-mouse thriller that perfectly fits the bill of typical streaming fodder. At least it's mercifully short, but don't even bother with it unless you already own a subscription.

SCORE: 5/10