Don’t Move
Warning: This article includes spoilers for Don’t Move.Netflix’s horror filmDon’t Movehas thrilled audiences with its tense cat-and-mouse game between killer and victim.Don’t Moveopens with themain character Iris (Kelsey Asbille)grieving the loss of her son and contemplating taking her own life before she meets Richard (Finn Wittrock) on a hiking trail.
When Iris lets her guard down, Richard kidnaps her and injects her with a paralyzing drug, and she must evade her captor while her body shuts down.
As the conflict progresses, Iris loses control over her body, starting with her fingers, until she can only blink.
However, Iris manages to continue fighting against Richard as long as she can, up untilDon’t Move’s ending.Don’t Moveconsistently fills its viewers with dread by depicting the worsening effects of the drug on Iris’s body, even occasionally showing the world through Iris’s own perspective as her senses warp.
The terrifying plot along with stellar performances from Asbille and Wittrock detailed inDon’t Move’s reviewshave led viewers to wonder whether the movie could have been inspired by something real.
Don’t Move Is Not Based On A True Story
Don’t Move’s Characters & Plot Are Completely Fictional
Luckily for everyone,Don’t Moveis not rooted in any real events.Because of the intensity of the movie’s subject matter, these experiences would have been quite traumatizing for the real people who served as inspiration.
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Instead,Don’t Movefollows in the footsteps of Netflix’s breakout thrillerwith its plot, both creating fictional villains on the lookout for their next victims.
American Horror Story needs to bring back some of its best talent to make the villains stand out, and the perfect one just starred in a new thriller.
Moreover, while some fictional horror movies can show similarities to real crimes,the directors ofDon’t Move,Brian Netto and Adam Schindler, have not cited any crimes as inspiration for the film.
A grieving woman must escape a serial killer in the remote forests of Big Sur after being injected with a paralytic agent. With only 20 minutes before her body shuts down, she embarks on a desperate race against time, battling fear and her fading physical strength in this tense survival horror thriller.
Rather, they have taken some classic horror and thriller tropes relating to the killer and victim and creatively added new elements to the mix.
Notably, Iris' paralysis creates an extra layer of tension that keeps viewers at the edge of their seats to learn how she will evade Richard.
Don’t Move’s Story Was Inspired By The Directors “Feeling Trapped” During The COVID-19 Pandemic
Don’t Move’s Directors Took A Well-Known Experience & Turned It Into A New Kind Of Horror
In aninterview withScreen Rant,Don’t Move’s directorsshared that part of their inspiration for the horror movie was the common experience of being stuck inside during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Co-director Schindler stated:
“So, there was a universal aspect of feeling trapped in your own house or your own body, and this idea of, ‘When are we ever going to be able to get out and go on with our lives?’
All of that was in the ether when we were developing it, so I think it seeped into the script in certain ways.”
The feeling of being isolated and trapped during lockdown resulting during the worst of the pandemic is one that audiences can likely relate to, but using that sentiment to create a terrifying story of a woman fighting for her life shows the directors' creativity.
Likewise, co-director Netto added:
“We’ve all gone through situations where we’re down, and we have to push ourselves back up.
So, we felt that was very universal and would speak to any culture, to any language, to any belief system that you adhere to.”
Beyond fostering the tension that runs throughoutDon’t Move, Schindler and Netto were able to create in Iris a character that audiences wanted to root for.The audience sees Iris' grief at the beginning of the film slowly morph into a fight for her life,and the movie keeps its viewers' full attention as she plots her escape from Richard while being trapped within her own body.
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A grieving woman must escape a serial killer in the remote forests of Big Sur after being injected with a paralytic agent.
With only 20 minutes before her body shuts down, she embarks on a desperate race against time, battling fear and her fading physical strength in this tense survival horror thriller.
