‘Don’t Move’ Review – Netflix’s Inert Survival Thriller Plays It Safe and Bland

The hook for Netflix’s high-concept thriller Don’t Move, produced by Sam Raimi, dangles the potential for a breathless thrill ride. A suicidal woman finds herself at the mercy of a killer who’s injected her with a paralytic, lending a new twist to the conventional cat-and-mouse thriller scenario. The scant 90-minute runtime only furthers the expectation of an adrenaline-pumping genre film. But it quickly becomes clear that there’s nothing here beyond its high concept, not even suspense, resulting in another paper-thin genre exercise in grief.

Iris (Kelsey Asbille) wakes early in the morning next to her sleeping husband and slips out of bed without notice. She doesn’t say a word as she heads into the wilderness to visit the spot where her son Mateo tragically slipped off a cliff. She plans to follow suit until a stranger who calls himself Richard (Finn Wittrock) happens by and talks her off the proverbial ledge. As the pair head back down to their cars to leave, though, Richard drops the nice guy act and injects her with a paralytic. He’s a serial killer with nefarious designs for Iris, but the suicidal woman’s survival instincts kick into high gear, even if she can’t move.