Here is my Don’t Kill Me Movie Review. The Italian film Don’t Kill Me (Non-Mi Uccidere) is now available on Netflix. Was this a horror? A drama? A social commentary? One thing for certain, sometimes they come back again.
Don’t Kill Me Movie Review
Mirta dies of a drug overdose with her lover Robin. She then exits her grave and finds out that in order to keep living, she must eat living humans. Should Don’t Kill Me be on your watchlist?
So this is Merta’s story, and we meet her and her reckless boyfriend as they’re driving down this twisty mountain road. Immediately we understand that Robin, the boyfriend, is a risk-taker, and he enjoys the adrenaline rush of just taking all kinds of chances. He seemingly has nothing to lose other than Mirta.
Once they arrive at their destination, Robin gets ready to take some sort of drug, and Mirta wants him to quit taking drugs, but also makes a deal that if she takes drugs with him, he’ll then stop. Her only request to him, Please don’t kill me.
This movie is pretty dark and gruesome. In one sense, the lighting is lacking brightness in many circumstances, placing a lot of shadows on figures to add an ominous tone to the story.
The drugs that Mirta and Robin take end them, and then, after an indeterminate amount of time, Mirta returns from the dead. The effects and makeup they use on her are really convincing and wonderfully crafted. Decomposition begins and the visuals help to create this sad but foreboding atmosphere.
We follow Mirta as she tries to figure out what’s going on, but she also wants to find out if Robin has also returned from the dead.
The way most of the story is executed is pretty clunky. It’s like chunks of the story were edited out, so when a scene changes, we’re just picking up from that point. Even if the story information isn’t present, then we knew it would clue us into what’s going on or why a character would be in a particular situation.
This happens more than a few times throughout the 90 minutes film. There are a few times where some exposition will come after the scene change to kind of catch us up, but it’s an odd way of telling the story because I was watching the scenes play out. Then a transition happens that raises all kinds of questions about who or why someone might be after another. Then several minutes after that, the explanation comes.
The progression of information isn’t always intuitive, and the way it’s presented is sometimes less than effective, and there’s a chase that dominates a good portion of the narrative, but it feels weak and even unjustified.
While it may make sense that a pursuit happens because we can’t just have some random undead person walking around our cities, an element of the story that’s revealed later on contradicts so many of the motivations for that actual pursuit. That then left me scratching my head as to even why the pursuers exist.
Something that I really liked in this, but was barely used were the flashbacks that give us some insight and background on Merit’s past and her relationships. The scenes would transition from drab and dark to bright and vibrant without cutting, just making this seamless transition from the present to the past, but very obvious as to what is going on in the scene.
This technique was effective in showing us how bright, happy or maybe even promising her past was, and then contrasts it greatly with her dark and sad present.
The soundtrack is also really great and very complimentary to the visuals. It mixes pop songs with songs that are maybe more industrial or ambient sounding and they each enhance the tone, whether that be happy and upbeat or dark and ominous.
Now probably the best story element in this is the social commentary that I believe exists. So many of the men Mirta comes in contact with, whether that be strangers across the room to just acquaintances or even those close to her. This rapy vibe is very consistently present.
I believe at the heart of this story is a commentary on rape culture. From almost the very beginning, when Mirta is shown entering a club, she receives piercing in these obsessive stares from men all around her.
In other scenes, she’s approached by some dude who is overbearing, and when she goes with him to escape what she believes is danger. The dude then treats her bad and begins to sexually assault her.
She also meets up with a former friend who Purves on her by peeping in on her bathing and then he tries to force himself on her after feigning vulnerability and compassion.
The final blow, though, comes from a reveal about how she died and how choices were made for her and against her without her consent.
Now, I don’t think this dcommentary was very overt and it certainly wasn’t preachy, but it is present, but it also would have been more effective if the story itself was presented in a less clunky way.
The Gore in this is pretty decent if you’re looking for more of the violent action. I mean, it’s not on the level of Texas Chainsaw Massacre, but whatever.
Now, while it looks good and it’s effectively gross to watch, the way that some of it comes about does feel like it’s forced into the story to give this more sort of just this action movie field, or at least to build other aspects of the narrative.
Mirta meets a character that helps her understand what’s happening to her, which also then allows for us to gain better context for the plot.
But with this, and especially in how the characters come together and then how the film concludes, this feels the whole thing like it’s a prologue to a possible franchise, but it’s not compelling enough as a whole to make us a franchise.
Overall, the story has potential, having a main character who comes back from the dead is first very intriguing, and then to have this mysterious group pursuing her adds a bunch of curiosity and even possible excitement.
Unfortunately, the way the story unfolds is convoluted with missing information and chunky edits. The antagonists are undefined in their true motivation or at the very least they’re just completely uninteresting which then leads to a lack of tension and care when it comes to their inclusion in the story.
The visuals are wonderful to look at and they really had a level of darkness to the tale which then helps to complement the social commentary addressing rape culture.
There really is a decent idea hidden within this but the execution prevents it from coming to fruition. There’s a bunch of sex and nudity, some profanity, and a lot of violence.
I am going to give Don’t Kill Me 2/5.
So what are you watching right now? Anything I should add to my list let me know in the comments below.
Guys thank you so much for reading the review of the Don’t Kill Me (Non-Mi Uccidere) movie. See you next time.
Don’t Kill Me (Non-Mi Uccidere) Trailer
Here is the trailer of Don’t Kill Me (Non-Mi Uccidere) Netflix film. Check it out.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6N9Oq89Cmo
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