Don't Kill It is a 2016 American Horror Comedy film directed by Mike Mendez and starring Dolph Lundgren.
A small town is dealing with an unusual series of mass shootings. People are showing up with pitch black eyes and killing everything in sight until they're killed themselves. Then, the person who killed the shooter goes on a killing spree themselves. The FBI is called in at about the same time that demon hunter Jebediah Woodley (Lundgren) shows up. According to Woodley, these murders are caused by a body-jumping demon. Lacking a better explanation, FBI agent Evelyn Pierce (Kristina Klebe) teams up with Woodley to stop the horror.
The film was distributed by Sony in the US and Australia.
This film contains examples of:
- Always Chaotic Evil: While nobody seems to know where demons came from or what they want, they seem to only exist to cause destruction.
- And I Must Scream: When a demon possesses somebody, their soul is trapped in eternal agony within the demon. Fortunately, it ends when the possessed person is killed.
- Angel Unaware: As it turns out, Pierce has some angelic blood in her. The demon wants to possess her and use that power to bring his brethren to Earth.
- Arch-Enemy: Jebediah Woodley has the unnamed body-jumping demon, whom he encountered in his childhood and his father had to kill himself to defeat. He kept it imprisoned for 30 years, but it's escaped and is killing again.
- Asshole Victim: Pastor Erikson and Agent Shepherd.
- Big Bad: An unnamed demon on a body-jumping killing spree.
- Black Eyes of Evil: A trademark of the demon possessing someone is the possessed's eyes turning black.
- Body Surf: The demon's modus operandi is to possess somebody and go on a killing spree. When its host body is killed, it jumps into the person who killed it and keeps going. The only way to stop it is to ensure your own death before letting it possess you, which allows it to be captured.
- Cassandra Truth: Nobody believes Woodley when he tells them about the demon, which he's used to. But he finds it incredibly frustrating, since it means more people have to die before they believe him.
- Demon Slaying: Woodley is a professional demon hunter in a long family line of them. He's so experienced that he doesn't even express any shock when the mundane authorities don't believe him, though it does still annoy him.
- Demonic Possession: Demons only interact with the world by possessing humans. This is explicitly stated to cause the soul to burn in agony for eternity. Each one has a different way of entering somebody, and a different duration they stay for.
- Did Not Get the Girl: Woodley and Pierce's relationship doesn't go anywhere because Pierce sacrifices herself to contain the demon.
- Dropped a Bridge on Him: Emmett is abruptly killed during the demon's attack on the town hall.
- The End... Or Is It?: The demon is trapped in a container, which Woodley drops into the Gulf of Mexico. It is promptly eaten by a shark, implying that it'll rampage once more.
- Fingore: The possessed Pastor Erickson chews off part of his finger down to the bone to use as a stabbing weapon when he has Woodley pinned against a tree.
- Good Luck Charm: Woodley has about ten charms around his neck at all times, to ward off the demons.
- Hate Sink: Pastor Erikson is a priest in a small Mississippi town. When a young Evelyn Pierce is saved from certain death by her mother's angelic blood, Erikson accuses them of being in league with the Devil and leads a campaign to drive them out of town. Twenty years later, a body-jumping demon is terrorizing the town and Pierce returns as an FBI agent to solve the case. Erikson accuses her of helping the fiend, even trying to exorcise demon hunter Jebediah Woodley. When Woodley and Pierce manage to capture the demon, Erikson leads an Angry Mob to rescue it, thinking it's an innocent townsperson, trying to personally murder Pierce when she gets in his way.
- Heroic BSoD: Chief Dunham has one when the demon leaves the town hall and starts killing through the streets. He decides it's time to Screw This, I'm Outta Here.
- Heroic Suicide: The only way to capture the demon is to ensure your own death, then kill the host; the demon then has nowhere to go and can be contained. Woodley's father had to poison himself to trap the demon 30 years back. And then, Evelyn kills Pastor Erikson and blows herself up, isolating the demon and allowing Woodley to contain it.
- Horror Doesn't Settle for Simple Tuesday: Christmas.
- Ignored Expert: Woodley is an expert on demons, yet nobody takes his advice even as the demon takes people over in front of their eyes. At this point, Woodley is used to it.
- Mauve Shirt: Clueless Deputy Emmett, who's the only cop outside of Chief Dunham to get any characterization, but is abruptly killed in the chaos caused by the demon at the town hall nonetheless.
- Net Gun: Woodley wields one of these equipped with weights to trap a possessed victim.
- Non-Lethal Warfare: Woodley is a master at this, as killing the possessed only leads to the demon possessing the killer.
- Our Angels Are Different: Beings of light comparable to angels apparently exist here, but they never show up onscreen and all we know is that they can breed with humans.
- Our Demons Are Different: These are incorporeal beings that only exist to destroy humans' lives. They can only interact with the world via possessing people, which traps the souls in utter agony, but each one has its own way of doing so. Their form when not possessing people resembles an orange, glowing orb.
- Sealed Evil in a Can: As this demon can't be killed like most, Woodley had to trap it in a heart-shaped container. The film opens with it escaping.
- Shrunken Head: Woodley owns a whip that has two shrunken heads attached to it.
- Sinister Minister: Pastor Erikson is a mix of this and The Fundamentalist.
- The Sociopath: The unnamed demon possesses people and goes on killing sprees until its host is taken out, after which it hops to whomever killed said host and keeps going. It keeps the souls it possesses in utter agony within itself, and wants to bring Hell on Earth.
- This Is Gonna Suck: Woodley's reaction to one of the cops killing the possessed man who entered the town hall."For Pete's sake."
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Gabriel's dog winds up releasing the demon from its container.
- Villain Opening Scene: The demon being released from its prison and beginning its massacre.
- Walking Armory:
- Woodley carries quite a few weapons: A revolver with rubber bullets, a three-balled bola, a whip with two shrunken heads attached, a net gun, and a couple traps.
- One host for the demon brings several weapons to the town meeting: an axe, machete, a couple shotguns (which aren't used) and a chainsaw.
- Would Hurt a Child: The demon has no opposition to murdering or possessing children, as the possessed will kill anyone around it. Woodley has no problem killing the children the demon's possessing, though that's because he considers it a Mercy Kill due to the agony a possessed soul goes through.
- You Kill It, You Bought It: The demon possesses whoever kills its hosts, and then continues its murderous rampage. You don't even have to know you're killing it, as long as you did it, you're done for.
