In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic that has ground daily life to a halt around the globe, Arrow Video is proud to announce the US release of Why Don’t You Just Die!, a blood-soaked black comedy in the vein of Quentin Tarantino and Edgar Wright. Making his feature debut, writer/director Kirill Sokolov presents a rousing tale of family, modern relationships and the dark places they can take you to when things turn sour. Why Don’t You Just Die! will be available nationwide on Digital HD April 20th.
Why Don’t You Just Die! has received critical acclaim from festivals around the globe, taking home the New Flesh Award for Best First Feature and Silver Audience Award at Fantasia, Best European Feature Film at MOTELx, Best Director at Fantaspoa, Best Feature, Best Director and Best VFX Awards at Grimmfest. Following a screening at Fantastic Fest, Film School Rejects raved that “Russian cinema has a new filmmaker to champion”.
Before the COVID-19 pandemic, Arrow Video had planned an April 10th theatrical release in a number of markets around the US and the UK. Planned theatrical markets included Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, New Orleans, Pittsburgh, Columbus, Knoxville, Ithaca, Houston, Lubbock, El Paso and Phoenix.
Ahead of the release, Sokolov shared, “Despite our exaggerated use of genre tropes and all the flashy effects, Why Don’t You Just Die! remains, for me, an incredibly personal and sincere story. The film’s inherent violence is the result of reflection on the realities of life in Russia, modern relationships, and societal attitudes. The gallows humor which pervades the film is the only true reaction whatsoever to all of this. The film is intended as an emotional rollercoaster, making the audience laugh, cry, and laugh again – but then immediately feel a sense of unease for having laughed.”
Matvey (Aleksandr Kuznetsov) has just one objective: to gain entry to his girlfriend’s parents’ apartment and kill her father Andrey (Vitaliy Khaev) with a hammer to restore her honour. But all is not as it initially seems, and Matvey’s attempts to bludgeon the family patriarch to death don’t quite go to plan as Andrey proves a more formidable – not to mention ruthless – opponent than he anticipated… and Matvey, for his part, proves stubbornly unwilling to die.
