Sam Raimi will direct a modest but effective thriller

When it comes to horror and hardcore thrillers, there is no doubt. Sam Raimi knows the territory very well, so we’re in good hands when we see his name, even if this time it’s only as a producer and not as a director. This is similar to what he did in 2016. Don’t breathe directed by Fede Alvarez. Now, in the second installment of Raimi’s Don’t franchise, we get Don’t move another thriller with a simplistic generic title warning viewers that they’re in for an intense adventure. This film comes from the production team of Adam Schindler and Brian Netto, working from a script by TJ Simfe and David White that isn’t so much terrible as it is the latest entry in the seemingly normal family man turned psychotic killer genre.

Filmed in Bulgaria, which is both beautiful and remote California wilderness, we meet a solemn mother named Iris (Kelsey Asbille), clearly upset, looking at the modest monument with a photo of her young son. Standing on the mountainside, she seems to be contemplating ending it all, her grief overflowing at the place where the boy apparently died in a terrible accident. A friendly stranger, Richard, suddenly appears on the scene (Finn Wittrock), who senses her sadness and possibly suicidal thoughts and tries to sort of talk her away from the cliff by sharing his own life experiences. He soon persuades her to accompany him back to their cars, and if you know these kinds of movies, well, Dr. Jekyll is about to become Mr. Hyde and his psycho nature shows up without warning when he attacks her with a needle and a shot that when he ties her up and throws her into the back seat, he explains that this will cause her to become completely paralyzed in 20 minutes, leaving her unable to move and speechless. Before that happens, she tries to distract him by pulling out a pocket knife (not sure how he missed emptying her pockets), cutting the ties and attacking him. Her escape from the car crash doesn’t last long as he pursues her, injuries and all, and eventually brings her back until she finds another way to escape his grasp and jump into the raging river rushing downstream.

Back on land, her plight worsens: she practically collapses, unable to move or speak any longer, and is rescued by a kindly older man (Maury Treadwell), who takes her to his very remote hut to offer some help when… well… you can guess where all this might be happening. Although not quite on the level of one of the best examples of this genre, Cape Fear (both versions, but my favorite is Mitchum’s truly menacing and frightening work in the 1962 original), Wittrock (American Horror Story) he can go from regular guy to devious killer without missing a beat, and he’s essentially creepy for appearing to be your next-door neighbor. He’s one of those guys who has a secret life and it’s credible here because in these dark times we hear a lot about guys like that on the local TV news.

Asbille aka Monica Dutton Yellowstone, however, she has a more complex role: she mainly demonstrates terror and determination in separate doses with her eyes, since the paralytic dose has still not worn off and she is helpless. However, this is a woman who decided that she would fight with a new will to live, despite all the traumas that life had dealt her. Asbille impresses in a role that doesn’t allow her to move or speak much of the time. Treadwell, and later Daniel Francis as a cop, are effective in their supporting roles, but it’s essentially a two-piece, with Asbille and Wittrock making this B-Picture genre entry entirely watchable due to its short running time of 92 minutes. Zach Cooperstein’s cinematography deserves praise, especially for some impressive aerial shots that also help drive the plot forward and highlight the magnificent landscape in which the film is set.

In addition to Raimi, the producers are Zainab Azizi, Alex Lebovici, Christian Mercouri, Sarah Sarandos.

Heading: Don’t move

Distributor: Netflix

Release date: October 25, 2024

Director: Adam Schindler and Brian Netto

Scenario: TJ Simfe and David White

Rating: R

Opening hours: 1 hour 32 minutes