I am Movie Monkey and am a true film addict.
Hope you enjoy my reviews. May contain spoilers.
Death Of Me
- Genre:Horror/Thriller
- Release Date: 2nd October 2020
- Director: Darren Lynn Bousman
- Starring: Maggie Q, Luke Hemsworth, Kat Ingkarat, Kelly B. Jones, Alex Essoe.
Luke Hemsworth plays Neil, a Travel Reporter, who is on holiday with his wife Christine, played by Maggie Q in the beautifully scenic Thailand.
They wake up in their rented beach house with no memory of the previous night.
When looking on Neil's camera for clues to what may have happened, they find a video showing that they were at a bar drinking.
The waitress gave them both a special drink which she called 'Island Magic' and they became disorientated. She also gave Christine a necklace with a strange pendant.
The video then shows them both having sex outdoors and then Neil strangling her to death before digging a grave with his bare hands and burying her.
Horrified and confused by what they've both just watched, they argue and Christine locks herself in the bathroom.
She notices in the mirror that she has a bruise across her neck and she angrily takes her new necklace off.
She starts choking and vomiting up soil and grass but this stops as soon as she puts the necklace back on.
The villagers are preparing for their annual festival, even though according to Neil's calculations it shouldn't be for another two weeks.
All of the villagers seem to be staring at them and creepily smiling at Christine. One villager even approaches her and hugs her whilst saying thank you.
What is going on and why are people thanking her??
A fisherman offers them a lift off of the Island but whilst waiting at the end of the jetty, Neil feels compelled to use a fishing knife to cut open his own stomach. In a very graphic scene, he is seen by Christine to pull his own intestines out of his own stomach.
He falls into the sea as Christine runs towards him in panic. By the time she gets their, he is no where to be seen.
When a police officer is called to investigate, anyone who was nearby at the time Christine states, says that they did not see anything happen.
Courtesy of YouTube
After the awful event, an extremely shocked and confused Christine is seen by a Doctor who examines her and tells her that she is pregnant.
He tells her that pregnant women are sacred on the Island but Christine is very confused and scared.
She goes to a gift shop and speaks to the owner to try and find some information on what is happening to her.
She says that she is not alive but also not dead. She is existing in a spiritual plain and the necklace she wears helps the scale from tipping over either way (dead/alive).
For hundreds of years the Islands people have been burying pregnant women in the town square as a ritual sacrifice to keep all believers on the Island free from ill health or disease and to keep the Island safe from outside sources such as typhoons.
The real reason why the Island has not suffered from one in all that time.
Someone knocks on the shop door and Kanda, the owner, tells Christine to hide.
It is the village Doctor and he whispers something in Kanda's ear before he leaves. Christine comes out of her hiding place and finds her stabbing herself in the face with a metal skewer.
Christine pleads with her to stop but she tells her to run and then stabs herself in the chest and dies.
Christine doesn't need telling twice and flees the shop, running through the village asking for the people to help her but they all, one by one, close their doors to her and shun her.
The lady and her young Daughter, who own the beach house that her and Neil were staying in, finds her in the street and offers to drive her to the ferry.
Christine accepts the ride but during the journey she becomes suspicious about the route and questions her.
The lady becomes defensive and Christine says that she doesn't think the young girl is her real Daughter.
She confesses that she isn't and that her Mother was in fact one of the women who was buried in the town square.
Christine puts on her seatbelt before shooting the woman in the head and the car dramatically crashes into a tree.
She runs away but she is chased by some villagers who are dressed all in white, ready for the ritual, and gets knocked unconscious.
When she wakes, she is tied to a post in the town square and is ready to be sacrificed and buried, like many before her.
Madee, the bar waitress who gave her the special drink that started this whole mess, holds a needle and thread. She tells her that she had plenty of chances to leave the Island but she chose to stay to look for Neil.
The sacrifice requires her free will to work but Christine opposes and says that there was no free will given.
Madee says that she should feel honoured to be chosen as in the old days, women used to volunteer themselves for the honour of being sacrificed for the good of the Island.
Madee sews Christine's eyelids together on one side of her face, but she manages to untie herself and fights her way free from the pole. She grapples with some of the villagers in a desperate attempt to survive.
She manages to run to the beach where she finds a boat and starts it up and sails away.
A news channel shows that the Island has been hit by a catastrophic typhoon (seemingly because they did not manage to complete her ritual, and it has decimated the Island.
Christine's body is found in the boat and she is taken to the Island. Workers are seen putting the deceased people, including Christine, into body bags.
Someone finds her necklace in the boat and places it in her body bag before zipping it up.
She then gasps as she comes back to life again within the bag.
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This movie was great. It had the suspense, the mystery, the surprises and the intrigue.
There has been plenty of previous movies which have the same kind of storyline: far reached Island with ancient rituals and sacrificial horrors, but this one still has lots of entertainment value and keeps you intrigued long enough.
It's not a new storyline but it was speckled with a few different ideas that I haven't seen in movies of a similar nature.
Maggie and Luke both play their parts excellently and were great to watch in their dynamic of a scared couple trying to put sense to the crazy goings on around them. I've previously seen both of them in differing genres and have liked their previous works so I think the casting was good for this movie.
There did seem to be a few plot holes and it did get slightly confusing at times with regards to what was real and what was being seen on the spiritual plain but overall it was pretty easy to follow.
Movie Monkey Rating: 4/5
