Death's a Beach
The new thriller "Death of Me" puts a clever new spin on the "found footage" horror film genre. A "found footage" story is typically based on the supposed discovery of shocking films or videos revealing the gruesome circumstances behind, for example, a mysterious death, missing person, or a haunting's origins. The plot usually revolves around exploring the disturbing evidence to find out what really happened. Unfortunately, this task typically involves engaging in more horrors than seen in the original footage.
The trailer for "Death of Me" is spot on. It establishes the film's premise and hints at dozens of high-impact frightening moments. While vacationing on a small island off Thailand, Christine (Maggie Q) and Neil (Luke Hemsworth) discover a horrifying cell phone video from the night before. Instead of just revealing the source of their debilitating hangover and foggy memory, the video shows Neil in full HD assaulting Christine, snapping her neck, and burying her in a shallow grave. Christine's cry of "WTF???" is not only justified, but it sets the tone for the rest of the film. There's also a good chance it may become your mantra for the next 90 minutes.
In a sense, the "Death of Me" trailer serves as the viewer's own found footage experience. Watching the full film will hopefully provide answers to all the questions the trailer content presented. However, as Christine and Neil search for explanations to the unexplainable, answers just lead to more questions, and more questions lead to a lot of scary stuff. [Soft Spoiler Alert ON] Christine's vacation itinerary rapidly becomes an agenda of regurgitating grass, envisioning haunted children, bandaging unexplained wounds, wearing a magical medallion of ambiguous powers, receiving eyeball tattoos, being forcefully inseminated to host a rapidly growing demon, acquiring healing powers, becoming the subject of idol worship, experiencing misleading hallucinations, avoiding getting her eyes sewn shut, and - if that is not enough - being chosen for a ritual human sacrifice by the island's inhabitants. [Soft Spoiler Alert OFF] With all this going on, there is not a lot of room for satisfying cause and effect connections, ultimately leaving the viewer with more questions than answers.
Maggie Q and Luke Hemsworth are well suited for their roles and they give it their all, though their performances may come across as disjointed. This is most likely due to their direction from a script that has so much going on. The cinematography and camera direction effectively support their efforts by creating a tense and visually absorbing atmosphere. There is also a repeated musical and vocal sound theme that is interesting but eventually becomes the movie's own ear-worm.
As long as you are not anticipating too many answers, "Death of Me's" clever premise is the starting point for a wild WTF horror movie ride. It is best to set your viewing expectations appropriately and just let it all happen.
"Death of Me" is available in Theaters, On Demand and Digital beginning October 2nd.
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