Movie Title: Die
Director: Dominic James
Date Released: June 2012 (Shanghai International Film Festival)
Date Seen: February 2nd, 2014
Part 1 – Spoiler Free Quickie Review
I was in the mood for a crappy horror movie, so I settled on this one. It was better than I thought it was going to be. It is exactly what you expect – 6 people wake up and have to play a dice game to survive. It tries to get all philosophical at the end for a second, which hurts it a bit, but whatever.
There is a very nice amount of plot development at the beginning, not to much not to little, I approve. Once we get to the place where they all wake up, they don’t waste a lot of time on the whole “where are we, why are we here, blah blah blah” that is always the same that I hate. I liked that about this movie. We also learn about the characters throughout the movie – and what led them to their attempted suicide before arriving at this point. I would have been more than happy with a bit more of the horror side, but I was happy that we got to learn about all the people. They came from all walks of life so that was interesting.
The move is very similar to Saw. It’s people who have all previously tried to kill themselves and now Jacob is giving them a chance to be reborn. So similar to Saw in that respect. There’s also a thing at the end which I won’t spoil but was oh-so-saw-y. Jigsaw though seemed to be trying to teach those people a lesson. Jacob is kind of whishy-washy on who he picks. He picks a few people who have VERY recently failed at their suicide, and a couple of them who seem to have attempted it a long time ago and are now glad they are alive. So, I don’t know. It was a good attempt at a movie, but still striking similarities to Saw. It does not however have all the gore, nor the shocking reveals (which is what I love about Saw). So if you want a toned down Saw movie, with a bit of an attempt at a philosophical message at the end, maybe give this a shot. It was a good background movie which is what I used it for, while working on a project.
Part 2 – In Depth Spoiler Ridden Review
When Jacob comes up to the rooms for the first time, why does no one scream, or ask why they are there, who they are, etc. Also, he just opens the door and lets Robert walk right out. Robert doesn’t fight AT ALL and just goes with him willingly. Um, what, no. With Mark we see Jacob has a gun, but still. Mark does though make a quick decision and shoot Jacob. So I do approve of that. Granted it didn’t exactly work out for him, but whatever.
I didn’t really get what was done to Melody. I have no idea what it was they gave her. From Zach’s story I know it was some kind of drug thing he was drinking… but not sure exactly what it was… it didn’t seem to really even do anything to her, because at the end of the movie, she clearly remembers what happened. Her story needed some more explanation.
Zach’s death was easily the most unfair. Really, a one is one minute, and thus a 4 is four minutes?? Even the 50/50 of 3 minutes would be hard for anyone to survive. Almost every other roll of the dice was fair, but this one was so not. Also probably the most painful way to go, yikes. The blood one, Diane’s also pretty unfair. The drugs and bullet there was at least a chance you’d survive if you got a 4/5/6, but this one they’re all certain death. So like the gun/drug people really got WAY better odds. You got the odds of rolling the dice being 1 – 6, then times the odds of “surviving” the 1-3 / 6 shot (with a random spin), or your body fighting through the drugs. So, yeah, those first people got lucky.
The police chief is a super dick. He is mad at Sofia for working too much. Ok I get that. But, he then gets mad at AND FIRES HER for investigating her partners disappearance, and finding his house broken into/etc. Seriously? You got mad at YOUR cop for investigating a missing cop of YOURS? COME ON! He better be on on this whole “die” game or else this is just ridiculous. Ok – edit – because I typed this while I was watching the movie. It makes more sense why he was so much of a dick now, considering that Mr. Police Chief survived the whole ordeal as well. Didn’t appear to in on it though, was just one of the people who survived and didn’t get in on the cult.
Towards the end, when Mark was hanging, I really wanted Jacob to go all two-face and flip a coin to decide whether or not to cut Mark down. But no. He didn’t. Fail.
Spoiler alert if you haven’t finished the “Saw” series, so don’t read if you plan on it: The end of the movie was SO Saw 7. Granted they both came out in 2007, but same freaking thing. In the end, a number of people who “survived” the trials are really working for the guy who did this all to them. Seriously. Nice try at a whole philosophical bullshit too at the end but no, just no. Be a crappy game horror movie, don’t try to be something more.
Overall: 5/10
It could have been better, and just seemed like a watered down version of Saw that was trying to have a “deep” message, but failed at that attempt. Not a bad background watch, however.
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