Mark Reviews Movies: DEATH OF ME

Follow on Facebook | Follow on Twitter | Become a Patron

Review by Mark Dujsik | October 2, 2020

While visiting an island somewhere near Thailand, the American couple at the center of Death of Me discovers a lot of reasons to distrust, fear, and even hate the local population. Does the problem with this scenario need to be explained?

In case it does, let's do a test. Imagine this exact story, in which two visitors are repeatedly tormented and tortured by locals based solely on some undefined and creepy religious beliefs, wasn't set in Southeast Asia. Let's just say that someone involved in the production suggested that a change of scenery might work. Maybe screenwriters Ari Margolis, James Morley III, and David Tish were asked to transplant the basics of this horror tale to—oh, let's say—Africa. Everything about the story would remain the same, though—from the inherent and constant threat of the locals, to the portrayal of local religious customs as some kind of dark and sinister magic, to the big climactic scene in which this cult of witchcraft perform a ritualistic sacrifice of an American woman.

Would anyone on the production, from the screenwriters to director Darren Lynn Bousman, realize what a terrible, ugly, and hateful idea this is? If that's the case in one place outside of the United States or other Western countries, shouldn't it also be the case for any location and any group of people?

There is a distinct, albeit sadly common, ugliness to this movie—a xenophobic belief that strangers from a foreign land, of a different ethnicity and with unique cultural beliefs and practices, are an intrinsic threat to those outside of that land and that group, especially Westerners. One feels that open hostility toward the stranger throughout this movie.

At least, in terms of plot and filmmaking, it's also a pretty bad movie, too. We can just accept that it possesses a terrible, xenophobic concept and move on from there.

The story follows Christine (Maggie Q) and Neil (Luke Hemsworth), a married couple who awaken on the last day of their vacation on this remote island with a mystery. They can't remember what happened the previous 12 hours, and they're covered in dried mud. Christine is wearing a strange medallion, the origin of which neither she nor her husband can recall. In the rush to reach the ferry to the mainland, they also seem to have misplaced their passports and Christine's cellphone.

Neil still has his phone, though, and he has the idea to reconstruct what happened the previous night with the photos he took. There's also a lengthy video on his cellphone. It begins with them drinking some strange concoction at a restaurant, and the video ends with Neil strangling Christine, breaking her neck, and burying her body.

This, of course, should be impossible. The rest of the story has the two trying to discover what the drink was, how Christine is somehow alive after Neil apparently murdered her, and who or what force is behind all of these strange happenings.

The resulting investigation leads to many seemingly random visits to assorted locals, plenty of inconsistent character choices and attitudes (Christine gets over Neil's crime just so the plot can continue), and a lot of passing out and waking up in unlikely places on Christine's part. There are also interludes of some strange visions—or perhaps they aren't—of people with sewn-up eyes and mouths doing all kinds of odd experiments and rituals on the American woman. Explaining the actual process of the couple's detective work is nearly impossible, because the screenplay is more interested in putting the two in peril or getting Christine into those uncomfortable situations with the creepy people than in making the path of the investigation coherent.

The locals who could help, such as tattoo artist Kanda (Kelly B. Jones), or are possibly part of the conspiracy against the couple, such as the server (played by Kat Ingkarat) who gave them the strange drink, are always looked at by the movie with suspicion or outright disgust, especially as the plan against Christine comes into somewhat clearer focus. No, it doesn't help to soften the movie's attitude that Samantha (Alex Essoe), a fellow American who now lives there for its "island magic," is also part of the local population, because the point about some sinister foundation to this culture still remains.

It's actually impossible to shrug off, ignore, or dismiss the story's xenophobic foundation. With its haphazard plotting and imprecise mysticism, Death of Me really offers little else to distract us from that.

Back to Home

Buy Related Products