Death of Me Review: Horror in Paradise

Release date: October 2, 2020
Running time: 94 minutes
Starring: Maggie Q, Luke Hemsworth, Alex Essoe

Vacationing on an island off the coast of Thailand, Christine (Maggie Q) and Neil Oliver (Luke Hemsworth) awake hungover and with no memory of the previous night. They find footage on Neil’s camera, and watch, horrified, as Neil appears to murder Christine. With twenty-four hours until the next ferry and a typhoon threatening the island, Christine and Neil attempt to reconstruct the night’s events—and are snared in a web of mystery, black magic, and murder.

Death of Me has a good setup.  Christine and Neil are in paradise, and who wouldn't love to be away in paradise especially now.  However, right from the start it lets you know that there is something not right going on.  The pair wake up hung over with hazy memories from the night before.  As they slowly piece together what is going on, it only leads to more questions.  The initial parts of the film where the pair are trying to figure out what is going on has a very creepy vibe, like something is not right and you just can't place your finger on it.  People will react friendly enough but have ulterior motives.  Crowds will stare at the couple with an observant, sinister eye.  It really does a great job of making you feel unsettled and gives an overwhelming sense of dread.  And this is helped by Maggie Q and Luke Hemsworth's great performances.  Maggie Q especially is quite good, with the right balance of frustration and fear as she tries to piece together what happened from bits and pieces.  She will be horrified at things she is seeing, but then get upset that no one is giving her the answers that she wants.

And this uncertainty extends throughout the movie.  Street events happen that have a sinister edge to it, innocuous things occur that give you a sense of unease, things are always happening and they never seem good.  The film accentuates this with a great use of sound and creepy effects.  These sinister seeming actions are accompanied by some unsettling sounds that keep you on edge.  And the film has a simple setup that focuses on traditional make up effects and not on CG.  Some of the scariest parts are the most innocuous, such as a celebratory parade with everyone wearing masks and you not really knowing who or what will jump out of them.  And overall, what Death of Me succeeds in doing is making paradise feel sinister.  The pair are in an absolutely gorgeous place and on edge the entire time.  It is tough to even enjoy it because of all the scary situations that the pair go through. The film also has an underlying emergency aspect to it that makes you feel worried about what will happen next aside from the creepy villagers and their actions.

Death of Me constructs a convincing horror scenario in paradise, with a great sense of dread, a story that has you constantly worried about the clock, and eerie effects and sound.

Watch it.

If you liked this review and want to see more from Watch or Pass, please consider 

following us on our various social media platforms: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Youtube. 

Death of Me will be available in theaters, digitally, and on demand on October 2, 2020.  For additional information about the film and to rent / buy it, check it out at the links below.

This site contains affiliate links. //Commerce or this site may be compensated when you click through links on our site.