Don’t talk to strangers – especially when you’re in the vulnerable position of staring off the side of a huge cliff. Netflix’s thriller ‘Don’t Move’ taps into the classic sequences of someone manically running away from a serial killer and tweaks the formula slightly. What would a person do if, throughout a defined time, they lost control of their bodily functions? Talking, movement, fighting back – all gone. Well, you would assume all hope is lost, but co-directors Adam Schindler and Brian Netto, at least, try to think of every possible scenario to keep this 93-minute train constantly moving. It’s a simplistic plot that strives to pave its 84-minute road with different set pieces to arrive at its somewhat muddled conclusion. There are genuinely some anxious-inducing moments during the film’s first half. After a succession of them, the intended effect starts to lessen because the awareness of ‘Don’t Move’s hybrid of story influences doesn’t fully take shape.
Iris (Kelsey Asbille) has been washed over by grief – having lost her son Mateo in a horrible accident during a hiking trip. One morning, she ventures back to the spot where he died. Iris appears to think about jumping off the same cliff within the clutches of that sadness. Call it divine intervention, but Richard (Finn Wittrock) seemingly appears out of nowhere. He tells a story about a similar tragic accident that happened to him where an argument led to a crash that took the life of his partner, Chloe. This conversation is enough to talk Iris off the proverbial ledge and fight for another day. While it feels like a random act of kindness from a stranger, you can feel this isn’t the case. Not long after that, Richard’s nefarious sentiments take form, and he injects Iris with a concoction that will eventually render her immobile in 20 minutes.
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TJ Cimfel and David White’s script involves some juggling. It is a cat-and-mouse game in a remote location where the main protagonist is tasked with conveying emotions through limited functionality. Asbille does a commendable job taking everything ‘Don’t Move’ throws at her character. If her struggle isn’t shown within the fleeting physicality, Asbillie exerts it through eye movements and facial expressions. Wittrock is a foil who fully buys into the narcissistic psychosis of Richard. He’s disarming as a good-looking guy who feels he has the best intentions, but quickly molds into a maniacal figure. If you think there are similarities between Wittrock’s Richard and ‘Trap’s ‘The Butcher,” I’d think you’d be spot on. Both figures lead double lives with families aside from their mischievous dealings and have a plan to match for any inconvenience that might surface.
Given the central plight of ‘Don’t Move,’ Richard clearly has the upper hand and the benefit of being in the woods where there are few people to intervene. Still, the film at least tries to instill a couple of other people into the fray to trip him up in his murderous plot. Most of which serves as a pause to temporarily deter Richard from his focus and give Iris a breather. Richard’s motivations are a little muddled. He’s a serial killer- that’s distorted motivation enough, and the film notes he’s done this sort of thing before. Then, there’s an added element of tying into Iris’s plight because she wanted to end her life. Is this entire ordeal supposed to be a way for Iris to appreciate still being alive? If ‘Don’t Move’ is striving to show that from the perspective of surviving this ordeal entirely, maybe. Richard hints that this is the reason in a Jigsaw-esque manner, but the film doesn’t nail that down.
I would surmise that anybody would be thankful to have escaped the clutches of a deranged person. It’s not lost on me that Cimfel and White’s story has a person who lost all hope at the center of it. It is also not such a colossal metaphor where Iris has to regain physical strength to escape her predicament. In terms of dealing with her source of trauma, there’s not much ‘Don’t Move’ has to remedy that. There’s no remedy for losing a loved one (let alone a child), but it would have been nice if the film showed how strong Iris’s bond with her son was aside from some brief flashbacks.
The Sam Raimi-produced film is aware of how over the top some of the made-up stories and predicaments are—especially when paired with the more anxiety-involved scenes of Iris trying to figure something out. Much of that is hoping Richard slips up, and while he eventually does, things run out of steam at that revelation.
“Don’t Move” is now streaming on Netflix.