The thriller produced by Sam Raimi Don’t move has already reached No. 1 on Netflix’s global streaming charts since its October 25 release, and it’s no surprise given the unique premise and stellar performances from its lead actors. The film is directed by Adam Schindler and Brian Netto, who previously directed an episode of Raimi’s 50 states of fear anthology, from a script by TJ Cimfel and David White, who also wrote their latest thriller Intruders.
Don’t move follows a woman named Iris, played by yellow stone star Kelsey Asbille, who is dealing with grief over her son’s death when a chance encounter with a killer forces her to kick into high gear her survival instincts. Said killer is Richard, played by American horror storyis Finn Wittrock, who injects Iris with a paralyzing agent and expects her to die within 20 minutes. But to her surprise, Iris fights back even as paralysis begins to take hold, and the cat and mouse game becomes increasingly creative as she must fight her own body to save herself.
TelaRant interviewed Netto and Schindler about how they plotted the character arcs of Don’t move from its early stages, the casting of Kelsey Asbille and Finn Wittrock, and why even the film’s soundtrack had to be perfectly matched.
One of the biggest restrictions of not moving was also his biggest strength in the script phase
“Everything is a challenge, and we were just rolling with the punches as they came.”
Screen Rant: You both mentioned that you wanted this movie to happen in real time, which is genius. What have been some of the challenges and rewards of using this format?
Adam Schindler: Continuity is a big problem. This isn’t a spoiler, but the film takes place during the day. At first we thought, “Okay, this is great. No night shooting, nothing like that.” But then you’re dealing with sunlight coming through trees and a lot of different things. Most of the film takes place outdoors, so you’re dealing with the potential for rain to change the sunlight. So I would say continuity was the biggest challenge when it came to shooting a real-time movie like this.
Brian Netto: Plus, we love stories that feature characters that have some kind of arc or trajectory from beginning to end. The other challenge when you’re conceiving something is figuring out a way in which your character can have a realistic journey and get closer to it. But everything is a challenge, and we were just following the scams that were coming.
Screen Rant: I find this story absolutely terrifying and it’s something that could actually happen now. Can you explain your collaborative process with TJ Cimfel and David White, when it comes to building the story and characters?
Brian Netto: Yes, TJ and David worked on our last film, Intruders. That was a spec, originally titled Shut In, that we found and then made. For this one, we presented them with the concept and the constraint we gave them was to make sure it happened in real time as much as possible. We said, “Good luck. Now let’s see what we have.”
Adam Schindler: One of the other things we said was, “Let’s try not to get into our heads and listen to any kind of self-talk narration.” Make it a true step-by-step process, follow the entire process with what happens in real time, get trapped and then we’ll help you try to figure out a way out of it.
Brian Netto: Talking a little about the challenges of something that happens in real time and over the course of a day: That was it, right? And so we gave them things that we knew we wanted to lean into, and also things that we wanted to run away from. But more than anything, we knew that once we figured out what journey she would go on, we would build an antagonist who would mirror that and be the consistent obstacle in her path to getting to the end of her journey.
Once we decided that, it happened incredibly quickly. The boys are brilliant at creating characters based on a really unique genre, so they took it and ran with it. What you saw was largely what happened after Draft 2. Draft 2 is a lot of what you see in the film, which is amazing.
Screen Rant: Was there any chant that made you think, “Okay, this is really hard. How can we figure out a way out of this?
Adam Schindler: I would say there were some iterations of some sequences where we thought, eh, I think we painted ourselves into a corner too much and had to step back and say, okay, it has to be realistic. You have to be able to, what we don’t want to do is paint yourself into a corner and then have your characters make and make choices and do things that take you out of the movie and say, okay, this is supposed to feel realistic. You can’t be, so you have to take any kind of communication away from her and things like that. It’s just trying to find realistic ways for that to happen and then trying to find a way out. TJ and Dave are great at creating sequences like this, so we had some ideas and then we let them go and created a bunch of them on their own, and they did a fantastic job.
Don’t Move is an acting tour de force for Kelsey Asbille and Finn Wittrock
“She had to put her performance in our hands and gave us amazing things to work on.”
Screen Rant: Kelsey is phenomenal in this film. How did you guide her journey through these complex emotions, given limited physical movement?
Brian Netto: We have a good friend who is married to an anesthesiologist, and one of the first things we did was set up a call to walk her through the script. She said, “Okay, you don’t mention what that is, but that’s how it would work.” And so we brought Kelsey into the conversation to talk about what it would feel like, what the mobility would feel like, how it would start to break down, and what the muscles are feeling at that moment.
We had this conversation before we left, and then we flew halfway around the world and landed, where we talked to her about where in the script she’s capable of doing what. We kind of broke it down this way, like, “Okay, right now, you’re capable of doing this. In that moment, you are able to do it.”
But more than anything, a lot of it was the trust she had to put in Adam and me to make sure she wasn’t doing too much or too little. Because that’s always the conversation. “Am I giving you enough?” And we told her more often than we do now, “What you’re expressing through your eyes is great, because that’s all you have in this particular moment. It’s passing.” It’s all the things she needed to do. She was able to convey through her eyes when she was in that most vulnerable state, and it was great to see her work. But it’s really a question of trust; she had to put her performance in our hands and gave us incredible things to work with.
Adam Schindler: We were just making sure we were prepared, just knowing exactly what her body was doing at what times. Having everything planned out in advance, so that when she’s in a sequence and we shoot in the middle of the woods or whatever, there’s not a question of, “Where am I with my skills?” and all that kind of stuff. We had it all figured out, so she could just be the character, and not have to worry about those things. And she did a phenomenal job.
Screen Rant: She sure did, and so did Finn. He’s so unnerving sometimes and he’s a big liar at the moment. What did Finn bring to his role that went beyond the page?
Brian Netto: Yes, it’s a difficult role because we wanted someone who was charming. We wanted someone who could exude the threat we needed when we needed it, but at the same time be someone you understood and connected with. Even though we only know these characters for 90 minutes, you have to understand the way he was able to work before the film started and the success he had. He has been able to do this over and over again because he is so good at taking off his mask. He is constantly wearing masks and can do this in any situation with the blink of an eye to get what he needs at that specific moment.
Adam Schindler: It was really important for us to make sure the audience didn’t get scared by him too early. It had to feel like he was a real person – not that you actually know who he is in the end, or what personality he is. Maybe you end up not seeing what his true personality is in the film. But we spent a lot of time talking to Finn about the masks he wears, and we were laughing on set because it’s like a messy therapy session between the two of them.
On the one hand, he is a psychiatrist and on the other, she is a psychiatrist. They’re kind of getting on each other’s nerves and just finding those moments where she can poke at his humanity, and you kind of see a little bit of his humanity shine through before he’s able to stifle it a little bit. It was important that we found someone who was capable of doing that dance. Finn is fantastic at being charming but threatening in a scene; In just a few moments, he is able to do this. It was fun to watch.
Screen Rant: Kelsey described the film as propulsive and personal. How do you balance the high-stakes thriller element with the more intimate personal moments in this film?
Brian Netto: I think this starts with the script, right? Because we were so involved in her development, we made sure that along the way you understood where she was on her journey. Obviously, she’s trying to survive this ordeal, but there’s something bigger at play here that puts her in this position that we’ll find her in when the film begins. We have to understand where she is along the way, through the conversations she’s having with this Richard or Andrew or whoever.
And so every time we had the opportunity to do that, we wanted to see some of that come through, whether it’s the guilt that’s coming up or the fire that’s being fueled within her through their interactions. It’s always been a conversation about where she is in her journey. We had these conversations with Kelsey when we first met her, trying to figure out when the moment would happen where this would happen again for her, where she would say, “I’m ready to keep fighting.”
Adam Schindler: We developed this story with TJ and David in the latter parts of the pandemic when everyone was still at home doing this Zoom thing and developing it that way. So there was a universal aspect of feeling trapped in your own home or in your own body, and this idea of, “When can we get out and get on with our lives?” All of this was up in the air when we were developing it, so I think it crept into the script in certain ways. I feel like it really helped convey the thoughts and ideas that we have and really made it present for everyone.
Brian Netto: Obviously her trauma is very specific, but it was so easy to visualize as something that anyone can relate to. We have all been in situations where we have fallen and need to get up again. So we felt like this was very universal and would speak to any culture, to any language, to any belief system that you adhere to. We knew it would speak to people, and if that worked well, beyond the top layer of emotions, then we knew we would have something that could potentially have an effect on people outside of the pure fun of just watching her go through this ordeal.
Screen Rant: Adam, I read an article where you mentioned that Kelsey and Finn were very generous on set. Can you share a specific moment when their collaborative spirit significantly impacted a scene?
Adam Schindler: Yes, there is a scene that takes place in a pickup truck parked on the side of the road. It’s an intense scene and there are some monologues going on, so your camera is focused on one person. You could often expect the other actor to say, “There’s no room for me to sit next to the camera, so I’m leaving.” But they both said, “No, I’m going to be right here next to the camera to give the other person what they need.”
It’s very similar to a story I heard about Tom Hanks a long time ago on The Green Mile, where he was sitting off camera. You think Tom Hanks is going to say, “I’m going back to my trailer,” but he sat there the whole time next to the camera, giving it his all. He’s putting on an Oscar performance off-camera. It was very similar to that.
Brian Netto: Yes, a lot of times people just give you the lines, but it’s one thing to give the lines instead of giving the same performance that you need to elicit the emotion that you need to achieve. They were fantastic about it. They got along really well, which obviously helped the production and us. They brought out the best in each other, without a doubt.
Don’t Move is a masterclass in building tension – with Adam Schindler and Brian Netto as teachers
“How can we actually sit in this moment, make it uncomfortable, and let the camera linger?”
Screen Rant: I felt like I was on the edge of my seat for the entire hour and a half of this movie. Can you talk about what techniques you used to increase tension?
Adam Schindler: A lot of it is not being afraid to sit in shots for a little longer than people are used to at this point. Do you know what I mean? These types of films, real-time thrillers, have cameras flying a lot of the time. There’s a lot of fast-paced editing and everything. We really charge ourselves with sitting there and thinking, “How can we actually sit in this moment, make it uncomfortable, and let the camera linger?” We let people experience the painting and we experience the moment with them. I think that was the key.
Brian Netto: We wanted to put the viewer in Kelsey’s shoes and have them experience what she’s experiencing, without getting inside her head or living from her point of view, per se. And a lot of the ways we thought we could do that was just being with her. If you notice, for much of this film, she is always in the frame. You feel it, you feel it, and we worked with the sound design team to create the sensation of what it’s like to have that narcotic coursing through your system.
She’s in this incredibly beautiful environment, but now she has something else that enhances the environment and makes it feel a little different. And then our songwriting team is amazing, Mark Korven and Michelle Osis. If you’ve heard Mark’s stuff on The Witch or The First Omen, you know he’s very talented. Mark and Michelle created a sound design and soundtrack that blended together so you didn’t know which one you were listening to. You’re hearing these sounds that make your skin crawl, and a lot of that was dictated by the idea that if you’re feeling what she’s feeling, you’re just as anxious and tense as she is.
But also, a lot of that work has to be done from the beginning with character work. Because if you don’t care that your protagonist is going through this, if your protagonist isn’t scared, and if you’re not scared for her, you’re not on the edge of your seat. There is no investment that you have as a member of the public. So, you have to care about them and be able to put yourself in their shoes. You have to win when they win and lose when they lose – and she loses a lot, so you have to be there for her when that happens.
Adam Schindler: Yes, we had a lot of prep conversations with our cinematographers and we spent a lot of time talking about how this film might be from her perspective, but not always from her point of view. That was a big part of it, making sure she was in the frame or that it was coming from her direction or perspective at all times. It’s her film, it’s her journey – and having everything planned out in advance means that when you’re facing it on the day, you’re not willing to break it.
When you get halfway through production, sometimes you think, “We have to go about our day” and you start to rethink everything. But we could continue with the plan. “This is what you have, and this is the perspective, and this is how we’re going to do it.” I was happy that our DP always reminded us that this is our plan. It was incredible.
Screen Rant: What did you two learn from acting as directors in such physically and emotionally limited roles, and how might those lessons influence your future projects?
Adam Schindler: Great question. I think we just learned that it all depends on the cast. For character work, it all starts with casting. Get the right actors who understand the story the same way you do, who are on the same page from day one, and then let them explore and find the characters. They are the actors; they are the talent on screen.
Ultimately, it was our idea, and TJ and David wrote it, but they are embodying the character. You hand the character over to them and you have to trust that they know what the character wants and needs for their scenes. Our job as a director is to just keep them within the film as a whole, but let them really be the characters and trust their judgment.
Brian Netto: And then prioritize. This is the longest we’ve had to rehearse a film – and it wasn’t a lot of time by any means, but it was more than we had before this. And a lot of that happened in these conversations about, “Am I kneeling here? Why am I kneeling? Maybe I’m standing. Maybe it makes more sense if I approach it this way.” These are incredible conversations.
It’s one thing to have the blueprint, which is the script, and another thing entirely to create a shot list that looks great. But the most important thing is to make sure they are behaving the way they would behave as real people, but also as their characters. It’s really just a collaboration and you need to dedicate time to it. I think what we’re going to do going forward is always make sure we hand the role over to them and let them be the character. The other thing is giving us time to explore and have those conversations before we get there and actually start filming so we can figure out the best path forward.
Adam Schindler: We solve all the problems, so there are no questions on the day. There are no questions. You’re all out there doing the same thing. You are all rowing in the same direction.
More about Don’t Move (2024)
When a killer injects her with a paralyzing agent, the woman must run, fight and hide before her body completely shuts down.
Check out our others Don’t move interviews here: