Death Note

2017 · United States · 101 min

Director: Adam Wingard
Screenplay: Jeremy Slater
Producer: Roy Lee
Music: Atticus Ross
Cinematography: David Tattersall
Based on: Death Note

What the critics say

38 % Rotten Tomatoes positive reviews43 Metacritic /100

Cast

Paul Nakauchi

What it is about

In Seattle, high school student Light Turner finds a mysterious supernatural notebook, the Death Note, in which writing a name causes that person to die in the prescribed way. He soon meets Ryuk, the death god who owns the notebook, and begins using it to punish criminals and people he finds intolerable. His life changes when he shares the secret with his classmate Mia Sutton, and the two adopt the alias Kira to throw investigators off their trail. The arrival of the enigmatic international detective known as L turns the story into a contest of wits and suspicion, with the Seattle police and Light's own father drawn into the hunt for the killer.

How it was made

The film grew out of an adaptation developed by producer Roy Lee and is presented as a loose reworking of the manga by Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata, departing considerably from the Japanese original. The screenplay is credited to Charles and Vlas Parlapanides, Jeremy Slater and Kyle Kilner. Adam Wingard directed, with Nat Wolff as Light, Lakeith Stanfield as L and Margaret Qualley as Mia, alongside Willem Dafoe, who voices and embodies Ryuk. Atticus Ross composed the score and David Tattersall shot the film. According to the director, Mia is not a direct version of the manga character but draws on the sociopathic traits of Light.

Reception and legacy

The film premiered at FrightFest in London before Netflix released it on August 25, 2017. It received mixed to negative reviews, and its distance from the source material was among the most debated aspects. A sequel is reportedly in development, with Greg Russo attached to write the screenplay, though its future is not confirmed. Its legacy is more modest than that of other manga adaptations, and it is usually remembered as an American version that took its own path.