“I Know Exactly How You Die” (2026) follows horror writer Rian Burman (Rushabh Patel) who checks into The Claiborne to stay for a week and complete a draft then send it to his agent, Ruthie (Lorena Felipe). Strange incidents start happening at the motel which suggests that the events in his novel are coming to life, but when events stop reflecting what Rian is writing, can he regain control of the story and stop the bloodbath? Watch “Big Baby” (2025) instead.
“I Know Exactly How You Die” does not know what tone it wants to strike: extreme, grim horror or jokey jokes that never quite land. Rian is introduced as a bit pathetic, immature and unfocused. He spends most of the movie the butt of all the fellow motel guests’ suspicion or ire. Patel is endearing enough that the average viewer will want his character to do well. Rian is also out of his depth even when he is behind the wheel of his story to guarantee that he comes out on top, which renders most of the story frustrating and expecting the other shoe will drop.
“I Know Exactly How You Die” is shaky when it comes to establishing the mythology of the story, which is crucial to the premise because no one will believe that Rian has that much creative juice. The Claiborne has the power to bring to life whatever is written. Why? No idea. Do we need to know? No, but we need to believe that writer Mike Corey does, and based on the execution, not really. Static appears on the closed-circuit televisions which receive the security camera’s footage, a potentially stirring visual device to throw the horror into the found footage territory, but never materializes.
When the protagonist of his story, Katie Waters (Stephanie Gomes Hogan), a common name, appears, the audience does not know Rian’s story’s protagonist’s last name but is supposed to infer that they are the same. Um, no. Katie is running away from a stalker, Hector Alan Darbes (Bobby Liga), who appears on the news. So, Katie is introduced as real and only later described as part of the story when Rian is rarely shown writing and only shares the sparsest of details about his story. The connection needs to be so visceral and obvious that the audience automatically concludes it from watching Katie, not require an unreliable narrator to explain it.
Hogan constantly plays Katie at a ten with wide eyed intensity. Director Alexandra Spieth could have given her that instruction, but it does not work in every interaction and leaves little room for Hogan to work with when she needs to further ratchet up her performance. While in principle, Katie is kick ass and ready to fight against all odds, but it is hard to root for her when she seems so one note. In the guide of final girls, i.e. “Halloween H20: 20 Years Later” (1998), Jamie Lee Curtis delivers a masterclass in the evolution and pacing of the traumatized final girl who is tired of running and ready to fight. Katie does not have to be as good as an icon, but she needs to be in the same neighborhood. To be fair, if she is truly Rian’s creation, and that was more effectively conveyed, it would make more sense that as his creation, a traumatized Katie would suddenly be into any guy instead of wary of anyone as she is with even random friendly people like Naja (Rawya El Chab), the owner of the motel.
El Chab is the most convincing character in “I Know Exactly How You Die,” and even Corey failed her. She knows the motel’s history, trusts Rian with the information then gets suspicious of him when people start disappearing. What the what? Sure, people can be dumb and do dumb things all the time, but either Spieth told El Chab to play dumb, and El Chab refused, vice versa, or the writing is all over the map. The narrative has a lot of problematic structural issues. It opens with one of the most graphic murders, which repeats later in the story and is not in chronological order, thus it drains any tension or suspension that could have helped the story’s momentum. There is a mention of the bridge being down, and the cell not working, but it is again telling, not showing, after Katie repeatedly scoffs at the idea of calling the police, which seemed like the real reason that no one was calling law enforcement. There are plenty of moments that will leave most scratching their head.
There is only one moment in “I Know Exactly How You Die” that feels real, and it is when Rian gets distracted from checking in and starts playing a video game with a kid in the lobby. The moment rehabilitates him but makes the parents seem extremely negligent since a grown man is hanging out with their little girl. As the movie continues, everyone crosses paths, and Rian is somehow a worse person than when he arrived, but he and Katie develop an inexplicable kinship with the mom, Brady (Katie Wieland), which seems like the biggest stretch. None of the characters seem real. The personal dynamics feel more stylized than grounded. Again, if the audience knew more about the Rian’s story’s contents, it would make sense that he is a bad writer, so this world feels off, but it does not feel as if it is the case.
Is “I Know Exactly How You Die” scary? The bad guy is repulsive, does not have one redeeming quality and is not memorable. When his modus operandi is revealed, it is horrifying, but will probably only result in more questions from the viewer such as “What is that?” Fortunately, the script explains, but this guy’s arts and crafts hobbies seem logistically like a lot of work to execute. For instance, how does he find the time between stalking and killing to assemble a bathtub of blood and to craft those gifts for Katie. There is an oneiric sequence with CGI so bad that it renders the movie unwatchable. Dear independent filmmakers, if you do not have the budget to do something well, do something else and do that well. There is so much good content that even just restricting it to indie films, no one should waste their time watching a film with zero quality control. Pick a struggle: convoluted story, worse than amateur effects, etc. Come on.
“I Know Exactly How You Die” attempts to explore the theme of the moral obligation that a writer has to his creation, which would be a provocative concept if Rian ever presented as someone capable of depth, reflection and change. Of course, this dingbat thinks he deserves the world and only thinks of Katie in relation to her value to him. This man plays with lights like a three-year-old. It feels as if the story needed a lot more revisions to bring the concepts to life. It starts strong with establishing bustling, bristling community life in a motel, which soon gets tossed aside for a handful of characters who are largely uncompelling.
