“Don’t Move” is a kidnapping thriller that has nothing to say. Seriously, the well-worn 93-minute two-hander contains very few compelling observations about its fractured characters or its supposed tension. This film is simply a simulation of the genre beats you expect in a story about a man kidnapping a woman in the woods. The measly setup also leaves a lot to be desired, as does the anti-climatic ending. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

With Sam Raimi producing, directors Brian Netto and Adam Schindler care little for the main character at the center of TJ Cimfel and David Whiteake’s unremarkable script. Although we first see Iris (Kelsey Asbille, “Yellowstone”) wake up next to her husband, we get the feeling that her high has lasted longer than her sleep. The couple tragically lost their son in a hiking accident. While they were carving their initials on a tree, a young Mateo walked off a cliff (I wish I was kidding). Iris makes sure not to stir her husband this morning, gets dressed in silence and walks out the door without her phone. She drives to a hiking trail with only a pocket knife and her son’s red toy boat by her side. Iris parks, walks down the path, climbs over boulders and up to the top, where she plans to jump to her death.

“Beautiful view,” comments Richard (Finn Wittrock). Richard, a seemingly brilliant man, disrupts Iris’ suicide attempt. He tells how years ago he contemplated suicide when his partner Chloe died in a car crash. By sharing his pain, he somehow literally talks Iris off an edge. The pair venture back across the rocky terrain towards their respective cars. It is here that Richard kidnaps Iris and injects her with a serum that will eventually paralyze her long enough for him to take her to his remote cabin for a weekend. As you might expect, Richard’s foolproof plan doesn’t take Iris’ determination into account. She avoids him for a while before becoming his property again.

“Don’t Move” shares some of the same DNA with M. Night Shyamalan’s “Trap.” Like Josh Hartnett’s enthusiastic Cooper Abbott, super-smart Richard is very quick on his feet. He chats up the mountain man Iris is hiding and quickly comes up with plausible excuses and broad stories for anyone who questions his motives. He also has a family that clearly doesn’t know he’s a serial killer. But that’s where the comparisons between “Don’t Move” and “Trap” end. Ultimately, this film is psychologically uninterested in its villain. Richard is nothing more than a menacing presence, a crooked smile with no emotional through line. With limited characters to play with, Wittrock goes out of his way to imbue discomfort in dull scenarios that only dampen the film’s almost non-existent pulse.

You could point with a similar incuriosity to the fact that the film doesn’t actually see Iris. Since the character is paralyzed for much of the thriller, it’s up to Asbille to provide some interiority in a largely silent role. Unfortunately, her darting eyes and twitching muscles (a physical manifestation of the paralyzing grief that haunts her) can only do so much work. We never really move beyond the simple metaphor of Iris’ grief for her son or the depression that has dominated her life since his untimely death. And beyond the briefest of flashbacks, the film never finds a unique way to step outside the character’s frozen exterior. We spend an entire movie with Iris, but don’t learn anything new about her that we didn’t know in the first ten minutes of the movie.

“Don’t Move” also suffers from poor VFX, a hyperactive score and an inability to create the kind of tense atmosphere needed to make a thriller like this work. The best thing that can be said about “Don’t Move” is that when you press play on Netflix, the time you may have wasted is at least easy to forget.