Director: D.J. Viola
Writer: James Hibberd, Rob Warren Thomas, D.J. Viola (Screenplay)
Starring: Nathan Kress, Virginia Gardner, Kirby Bliss Blanton, Ryan Higa, Mark Furze, Ethan Peck
Plot: A9913 is a new drug improving memory – like being there again. Anna joins 17 others testing it for $2000. Some experience the near future including deaths.
Tagline – Knowing your fate is a real killer.
Runtime: 1 Hour 47 Minutes
There may be spoilers in the rest of the review
Verdict: Drug Trial 101
Story: Tell Me How I Die starts when student Anna (Gardner) takes up an offer to be part of a drug trial, joined by fellow students Den (Kress), Kristen (Blanton) and regular Scratch (Higa) they are part of 20 person trial which sees them staying in a remote facility.
As the trial starts, the first side effects experienced, is replaying an incident, where the person sees, feels and experiences something, only to not have done it, only to do it and wonder why they have the feeling on déjà vu. Desperate to escape, the four are joined by Marcus (Furze) as they rush to try and escape the situation.
Thoughts on Tell Me How I Die
Characters – Anna is the student that is need of money, she takes the drug trial idea to make $2000 for a 30 days trial, she isn’t the most convinced by joining and soon becomes the person that can has the visions which could help the rest survive. Den had met Anna in a bar before the trial, needing the money for the same reason, he takes the trial in a plan to make money, while being the most decent person of the people trying to escape. Kristen is excited with the idea of the trial, she sees it as a chance to meet a guy, while becoming friends with Anna along the way. Scratch has been doing these trials for years now, he likes the pay day and the lack of work he needs to do, he does offer help when looking to escape.
Performances – The performances in the film are not the greatest, but they are also not the worst, we get a string of typical desperate young adults, who are slightly paranoid being filled in with the generic traits you would imagine to see.
Story – The story here follows five main members of the 20 person drug trial, which sees them starting to experience the future, only to learn about a killer looking to pick of the members of the trial. This is a strange story, because you would have thought, we might have a couple of side effects from the drugs to start with, only for this to turn straight into the experiencing the future idea, which soon leads to the killer hunting people down. It seems to play out more like a slasher, over a psychological horror, which you would have imagined it being. In the end the story does most things to try and shock, rather than trying to have a complete story that makes full sense.
Horror/Mystery – This is a horror that circles around the slasher idea more than anything else, it tries to include a mystery, only it seems to come off flat while trying to unlock the truth.
Settings – The film uses the big facility which is meant to help with the remote trial, it is filled with mystery about what is happening here and could have been used so much better.
Scene of the Movie – The first vision.
That Moment That Annoyed Me – The fact the idea seems to go against itself by the end.
Final Thoughts – This is a horror mystery thriller that seems to come up short with how everything unfolds, leaving us wanting more and not getting enough of what we needed.
Overall: Flat Thriller.
