Why Don't You Just Die! (original title Papa, sdokhni) is a darkly comic Russian horror that was written and directed by Kirill Sokolov in his feature length directorial debut. It is also by far the bloodiest film I have seen in a long time, by the films conclusion the small apartment it is based in is drenched in blood on almost every surface, no bad thing! While it is in Russian the subtitles are perfectly fine.
Matvey (Aleksandr Kuznetsov) turns up at the door of detective Andrey Gennadievitch (Vitaliy Khaev) with the intention of murdering him on behalf of his daughter, Olya (Evgeniya Kregzhde). However it is fair to say things don't exactly to plan and soon he finds himself chained up in the bathroom. This is just the first in a series of events that brings mayhem and bloodshed to all involved in an ever increasing chain of double crosses and insanity...
This gets into things straight away with the film opening with Matvey just about to knock on his girlfriend's Dad's door. Motivations and explanations for all that occurs takes place as a series of flashbacks. Eventually we get brought up to speed on the mostly silent protagonists reasons. It was like the unlocking of a big puzzle, with each flashback more context is given, which impacts on future scenes. Sometimes the story plays out in an unreliable way, an early example being Matvey managing to pick the lock on his handcuffs and fleeing the flat. Then more information is provided and we go back in time to show Matvey in fact unable to pick the lock. Each character in the film is there for a specific reason and acts as part of the overall puzzle. Each subsequent visitor to the apartment adds on to the very farcical nature of what is unfolding.
