“The Minute You Wake Up Dead” is a fast-paced thriller set in the Bible Belt where some are god-fearing and others have nothing to lose.
In a chilling start to the film, a black screen reads a bible verse: “… the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness …”
This establishes the eeriness and complex undertones of the film and these elements don’t let up until the screen returns to black. From start to finish you will be kept on your toes and at the edge of your seat with your heart racing.
Russ Potter moved out of the middle of nowhere Mississippi to be a stockbroker in the big city. He claims he came back to share the wealth. However, when a deal he endorsed fell apart, he was responsible for many in the town losing lots of money and became the target for a whole lot of anger.
The film originally seems to focus on the threat of Russ’s life as he receives phone calls from an anonymous number name-dropping the title of the film in an “ah-ha” moment for the viewers. The caller asks Russ, “Where will you be the minute you wake up dead?”
Russ is renting a house next to a pretty waitress, Delanie Moore, and a brief romance sparks between the two until a day later when Delanie’s father is shot dead in the middle of the night while Moore was working a night shift at the diner.
Russ suspects that he was the murderer’s planned target and that Carl Moore became the victim due to the killer mistaking the two houses. However, that would be too simple of an explanation for this town.
The focus of the film shifts from Russ’s dilemma as more layers are revealed including the sketchier characters in town and just who exactly is the beneficiary in Carl’s death.
“The Minute You Wake up Dead” is filled with murder, lots of murder, betrayal and greed. In this town, characters embrace evil.
Their stories are told in just an hour and a half and one of the most significant skills of the movie is the way it makes efficient use of its time with one shocking twist seemingly just after the other.
At times, the film makes too much of an effort to get the audience to see the deeper meaning behind what’s on the screen. The action speaks for itself for the most part. It is in the silent moments of pause between action and excitement that the film falls a bit short – feeling contrived and overdone.
Though the pace of the movie is perfect for the story at hand, some of the major oh-my-gosh-there’s-no-way-that-just-happened moments are overshadowed by awkward one-liners. Though the film is strangely funny at times, it is often tough to tell if the writers were aiming at capturing odd southernisms, or if it was sometimes just plain cringeworthy.
This is not a flick for the faint of heart. If blood isn’t your cup of tea, and violence makes you want to cover your eyes, it might be better to pick something else for movie night.
Nonetheless, if you have the time to spend an hour and a half with your eyes stuck to a screen, it would be worth spending it watching “The Minute You Wake up Dead.” Featuring a Morgan Freeman narration, southern accents and murder-mystery, what more could you ask for in a rainy day type of movie?
