WHY DON’T YOU JUST DIE!: FILM REVIEW

 
Some films are deep, introspective treatises on the darkness at the heart of man, meant to be pondered and interpreted and dissected. And some films are meant to put a great big silly grin on your face all the way through. To me, Why Don’t You Just Die! falls firmly in the latter camp and is best watched with as big a bag of popcorn as you can manage. It’s only a horror film in the sense that it’s drenched in blood, sprinkled in gore and involves the characters doing horrific things to each other. There are no scares to be found here, just good old-fashioned bloody high-octane fun.
 
We meet Matvey (Aleksandr Kuznetsov) as he’s psyching himself up outside his girlfriend’s father’s flat. Fair enough, you might think, we’ve all wanted to make a positive impression on our partner’s parents. But it becomes quickly apparent by the hammer clutched tightly behind Matvey’s back that all is not as it seems. Sure enough when Andrey (Vitaliy Khaev) invites the young man in and reveals himself to be a tough-as-nails detective with secrets of his own, what starts as a bit of macho dick-measuring quickly escalates into a full-on brawl and a power struggle that threatens to destroy everyone involved.
 
This brawl is the moment the grinning starts, and it barely lets up from there. Director Kirill Sokolov adopts a throw-everything-and-the-kitchen-sink style to the visuals, with gorgeous shots of  epic sweeping slo-mo, crazy tilting dutch angles and sharp jagged cuts all working overtime to enhance the cartoonish violence. It’s very reminiscent of early Guy Ritchie films, and like those films the shot choices hit more often than they miss. I especially enjoyed the spaghetti western closeups of the characters’ eyes, complete with soaring Morricone-a-like music, though it got too repetitive towards the end. It’s beautiful to watch, though, and it’s clear that Sokolov is having a whale of a time with the stylist choices.
 
When I say the violence is ‘cartoonish’ I mean that in the best possible way. It may not have the comical physical contortions of Kung Fu Hustle but it shares that film’s sense of anarchic glee in the fight scenes. It just happens to throw buckets of blood around a hell of a lot more. There’s a healthy dose of slapstick in and around the fight scenes, enough to make you laugh at the silliness but not so much that it feels childish. There is one tonally jarring moment where the violence (involving a hand drill) gets a little too real, a little too nasty, and it doesn’t sit right with the rest of the film. That said, this obviously isn’t a light and fluffy film so your mileage may vary on how appropriately dark it gets. The motivation that Matvey’s girlfriend Olya (Evgeniya Kregzhde) gives him for going to her father’s flat is super dark and again just a little too far for me. But the rest of the film keeps its tongue firmly in its cheek (or, in one memorably gross moment, down the bath plughole).
 
The actors are all brilliant, equally believable with the weighty emotional bits as they are with throwing each other around and smashing furniture over each others heads. Vitaliy Khaev is the standout here, dominating the screen with his macho swagger and looming presence. The violence and danger works because he makes you believe with 100% conviction that Andrey would kill you and bury you with barely a moment’s remorse – but he gets a couple of tender moments with his daughter that show he can be emotional when he wants to be. He may be a bad man, but he’s a family man. Aleksandr Kuznetsov is also excellent, making you root for what could easily have been a one-dimensional thug of a character. The wringer that he’s put through certainly helps, and he takes every blow and wound gamely.
 
Why Don’t You Just Die! is a nasty little film, but it’s the fun kind of nasty, the kind where you howl with laughter and instantly feel just a little bit guilty for it. It’s silly and bloody and beautifully put together. It demands to be watched with beers and popcorn and mates who are just the same level of sick as you are.  Ура!

Review by Sam Kurd 

the heart and soul of horror reviews