SPOILER WARNING: The following article gives away some details some details from the film Don't Move. If you have not yet seen this new 2024 movie, really consider your next move if you continue to read on.
One of my most frustrating movie pet peeves is when a film introduces an important countdown – such as a timer on a bomb – but does not actually depict it in real time. When I saw this storytelling device emphasized in the marketing for Don't Move – a new Netflix movie about a woman injected with a paralyzing drug by a serial killer – I became hopeful that it would incorporate the actual length of its centerpiece countdown into the runtime.
So, does this new horror movie from producer Sam Raimi utilize this overused and rarely-honored gimmick with some refreshing authenticity? Let’s take a look at my findings.
Does Don't Move's Countdown Gimmick Hold Up?
In Don't Move, Iris (Yellowstone cast member Kelsey Asbille) engages in a race against time after learning her attacker, “Richard” (Finn Wittrock, who has experience playing creeps from his many years as an American Horror Story cast member), has dosed her with a relaxant that will shut her body down in 20 minutes. When she has a free moment, she sets a timer on her smartwatch (which is unable to make calls from deep in the woods where she is) for that exact amount of time and continues to run away in search of a good hiding spot.
At that moment, I decided to pause the movie, rewind a few seconds, and set my own 20-minute timer on my phone, making sure it was in perfect sync with Iris’. Once she was rendered completely immobile and her smartwatch alarm started blaring, I looked down at my phone. The timer still had more than 11 minutes left to go.
So while the trailer for Don't Move makes a big deal over Iris’ 20-minute countdown to paralysis, the plot point is actually bullshit and the sequence does not even last half of its promised time span. However, there is one aspect of the film that does, thankfully, honor its experiment with time with some accuracy.
The Drug Does Last As Long As Don't Move Promises
Iris also learns from “Richard” that the effects of the paralyzing substance last about an hour. After pausing Don't Move to make note of my findings from the timer experiment, I noticed that right as the drug fully kicked in for her, the movie had almost exactly an hour left.
It is not until the very end of the film that Iris is fully back to normal and able to move as she pleases. That means while it does stretch the truth about how long her smartwatch timer lasts, the rest of the film, from that moment on, is actually depicted in real time.
Did The Countdown Affect My Enjoyment Of Don't Move?
To be clear, my enjoyment of a film rarely ever lives or dies by whether it or not it contains a pet peeve of mine. In other words, the fraudulent countdown gimmick did not actually bother me too much. If such a thing really did severely piss me off, I would not have loved Saturday Night – which takes place over 90 minutes but is actually 109 minutes long – as much as I did.
In fact, I think Don't Move – written by T.J. Cimfel and David White and directed by Brian Netto and Adam Schindler – is one of the best horror movies of the year, especially in terms of its pacing, which is especially impressive when you consider how our protagonist is immobile and unable to speak for much of it. On that note, I thought the acting from both Asbille and Wittrock was fantastic, really carrying the story and keeping the tension high even in its quieter moments.
If you have not yet seen this intense thriller and can get past fake countdown gimmicks, I would recommend logging into your Netflix subscription to stream Don't Move on Netflix when you get the chance.
