Don’t Move review by Bobby Blakey
I am a huge fan of the prank comedy series Impractical Jokers. Over the years the guys have all gone into other ventures including stand-up comedy, game shows, writers, actors and more. In 2018 James “Murr” Murray ventured into the world of writing co-writing numerous books with Darren Wearmouth. In 2020 they released Don’t Move that is now coming to life with the feature film of the same name starring Lyndsy Fonseca, Russell ‘Russ’ Vitale, Hunter King, Joesph Lee Anderson, Tom Cavanagh, Rob Riggle and T-Pain from Maclain Nelson. Could this film bring the horror it promises, or will it be too impractical to deliver?
Don’t Move follows a church group's annual retreat that turns deadly when they wander into the wrong part of the Ozark wilderness, and something starts picking them off one by one. Suspicion falls on Ricky, the troublemaker of the group. But the real threat is far worse. Deep in the forest, wrapped in a labyrinth of webs, the group is pursued by a terrifying prehistoric arachnid that hunts by vibration. It's up to Megan to hold what's left of the group together and get them out alive. When every step could be their last, they only have one choice: Don't Move.
I love a good creature feature and mix that with my fandom of the Jokers I was excited to see what Murr has created. The film itself delivers on the monster fun despite not really standing out in any new way. To be clear it’s not trying to, it knows what it is and leans into it to just bring creature fun to the genre and fans of them. As expected, there are a couple of the Jokers themselves including Murr and Q that both have cameos, but step aside as a whole to let this film be something else and I think it was a good choice.
The story is straight forward hitting all the usual tropes to this kind of film including the stereotypical group of characters. Like most gerne films like this they spend
most of the film fighting with each other keeping the ideal of the people who are worse than the creatures that are hunting them. They are mostly the usual cliché, so you know what you are getting and all manage to keep things moving exactly the way they are meant to.
The story takes a bit to get to the creatures and lets it build before the big reveal. They never get into any great original kills, but that’s ok since they bring just enough fun to make it work. The CGI that is used isn’t always the greatest but works well enough with the practical effects to still make them menacing and fun to watch. This is exactly the film I thought was going to be and had a good enough time that with the ending they gave would love to see more but also love that it ends the way it does.
Decide for yourself and check out Don’t Move available now digital from Well Go USA.