Film Review – Why Don’t You Just Die!

Writer/director Kirill Sokolov makes his feature-length debut with “Why Don’t You Just Die!” It’s one of those creative introductions that’s engineered to attract plenty of attention, and while Sokolov doesn’t make a horror film, he generates enough blood and bodily harm to best even the most potent scary movies. It’s a showy endeavor, delivering all sorts of technical gymnastics to keep the eye engaged, and it’s Russian to the core, offered as a slab of black comedy from a country that’s practiced in the tradition, with the writing getting extraordinarily dark at times. It’s the humor aspects of the endeavor that are debatable, as “Why Don’t You Just Die!” makes a distinct pass at being funny, but the jokes are strictly for those who find macabre games of power and intimidation amusing. It’s meant to be a cartoon, and one dripping with gore, but there are one too many moments where Sokolov is more attentive to cinematographic precision than inspired twists and turns. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com