Don’t Move (2024) review – A Tense Netflix Thriller With A Paralytic Twist

Welcome to Knockout Horror. After taking a look at Amber Alert just a few days ago, we have another similar flick in the form of Netflix original Don’t Move.

An interesting premise

Directed by the team of Brian Netto and Adam Schindler, who you may know as the director and producer, respectively, of found-footage pregnancy horror Delivery: The Beast Within. Don’t Move comes by way of legendary horror director Sam Raimi’s “Raimi Productions” production company. Raimi shares producer credits on the movie, so there is an experienced pedigree here. But the big question is: how does Don’t Move hold up?

“Iris has been injected with a paralytic nerve agent that, within the hour, will render her completely immobile. It’s a genuinely interesting idea that sets it apart from other garden-variety thrillers.”

Don’t Move follows the story of grieving mother Iris (Kelsey Asbille). After a tragic accident led to the untimely death of her son, Iris is struggling to cope. Heading up to the place where her son fell, Iris contemplates ending her life. A chance encounter with a hiker, however, offers her a moment of clarity. Little does she realise that this hiker’s intentions may not be completely pure.

Let’s be real, Don’t Move is a formulaic thriller with a few horror elements and some fairly nasty gore. The premise, however, is something that may set it apart from other garden-variety thriller movies. Iris has been injected with a paralytic nerve agent that, within the hour, will render her completely immobile. While she will still be able to breathe, she won’t be capable of any movement, leaving her completely at the will of her tormentor. Managing to break free, Iris finds herself in a race against time to somehow find some help.

It’s a genuinely interesting idea. Most thriller movies are fairly generic and follow a similar, tried-and-tested formula. It’s nice to see a movie that is, at least, aiming to try something a little different. The idea here works pretty nicely, as well. Setting a timer and running for her life, the viewer has a number of visual indicators of the severity of the situation Iris finds herself in.

It’s pretty tense in parts

<p>Iris constantly watches her timer while keeping check of her intricate movement capability, the entire time attempting to create some distance between herself and her captor. Naturally, it wouldn’t be much fun if the promised paralytic agent didn’t do its job, so it isn’t long before Iris is struggling with her ability to move and is forced to make some drastic decisions.

“The paralytic agent makes for some pretty interesting moments of tension. Everything feels quite tight as one desperate situation leads to another and the stakes continuously rise.”

I quite enjoyed this idea, and the paralytic agent makes for some pretty interesting moments of tension. There are a number of different situations where this very specific quirk comes into play. Indeed, the first two-thirds of the movie feature Iris spending much of her time completely unable to move and an unwilling victim to circumstance. It’s pretty compelling stuff and lends a feeling of uniqueness to what is otherwise a rather generic thriller.

Everything feels quite tight as one desperate situation leads to another and the stakes continuously rise. There’s something of a “Weekend at Bernie’s” vibe to some of what happens. Iris has little influence over her movements and kind of just flops around uselessly. It works okay for the most part. There is little in the way of downtime and the movie stays pretty fast-paced throughout.

Still quite generic

This is still a pretty generic thriller movie outside of the paralytic agent acting as a rather interesting novelty. This is getting pushed as a horror movie but, to be honest, the horror elements are pretty much non-existent. There are some gruesome kills, but that’s about it. Don’t Move is guilty of all of the usual tropes you might expect of the genre. There is a lot of suspending of disbelief required to buy into what is taking place – maybe even more than is necessary in other movies due to the paralytic agent.

If you find yourself questioning how the agent didn’t completely depress Iris’s respiratory system, you may struggle with a lot of what this movie has to offer. It can be eye-rollingly silly at times. Particularly when you think of our antagonist’s sixth sense for exactly where Iris has found herself, even when the two would have been separated by a significant distance.

<p>Characters are introduced purely to be brutally butchered and are dumb beyond belief, doing the wrong thing in every situation and basically facilitating their own grisly fates. Don’t Move is wildly predictable due to this. I don’t think the movie has a single surprise; you will predict every twist and turn way before it happens.

“Don’t Move is well-acted and fairly interesting, though it suffers for its poor writing as a whole. Still, the paralysis quirk adds just enough to make it compelling throughout.”

There is a very “thriller-by-numbers” feeling to everything, with every scenario playing out in a typically formulaic manner. It’s not a huge problem because you sort of expect it with this genre. But without the paralysis quirk, this would be a very generic movie. There’s a fairly severe story at the core that some might find to be a bit of a drag. I couldn’t help but feel as though the storytelling was at odds with the theme. This can make the film feel a bit mean-spirited at times.

Acting is a strong point

Acting is generally decent and it needs to be considering the theme. This is a very tight production with minimal characters. We need our protagonist and antagonist to be the entire driving force behind the story. Both actors do well.

Kelsey Asbille has a bit of an awkward delivery at first, but I think this may be down to the script. Some of the writing here is absolutely horrible. This is something that is a big problem in both horror and thriller genres as of late. Asbille comes on strong towards the later parts of the movie, and her physical performance is very impressive.

Finn Wittrock makes for a decent bad guy. He seems quite physically small. Seeing him as a killer who would need to use a paralytic agent to control his victims fits quite well. He does a decent job throughout. Cinematography is fine, and pacing is decent, with the movie never really feeling as though it lags too much.

As mentioned earlier, scripting is very poor, with some of the lines feeling incredibly awkward. When you couple the terrible dialogue with some of the dumb character decisions and a rather incompetent antagonist, it becomes pretty clear that Don’t Move suffers for its poor writing as a whole.

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