Dead in a Week: Or Your Money Back

Dead in a Week: Or Your Money Back

Year: 2018

Runtime: 90 min

Language: English

Director: Tom Edmunds

Echo Score: 61
ActionDramaComedy

Haunted by personal struggles, William hires seasoned hitman Leslie to kill him, with a guarantee of a full refund if the job isn't completed within a week. As the deadline approaches, William unexpectedly begins to reconsider his decision, and his reasons for wanting to die start to return. This forces a tense and dangerous game of cat and mouse between William and Leslie, who have very different goals in mind.

Dead in a Week: Or Your Money Back (2018) – Spoiler-Free Movie Summary & Plot Overview

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In a world where the grind of everyday life is laced with a sharp, unsettling humor, the film opens on the edge of desperation. The city’s restless pulse—its neon‑lit streets, cramped apartments, and stale coffee‑shop conversations—creates a backdrop that feels both ordinary and oddly surreal, inviting the audience to wonder how far someone might go when hope feels out of reach.

William is a struggling creative on the brink of surrender, haunted by a string of personal and professional failures that have left him feeling invisible and exhausted. Rather than ending his own story in the usual ways, he makes a deal with a stranger, placing a contract on his own life with a bizarre guarantee: if the job isn’t completed within a week, he gets his money back. This premise turns his despair into a twisted negotiation, framing his inner turmoil as a darkly comic bargain that raises questions about agency, value, and the price of redemption.

Enter Leslie, a seasoned hitman whose reputation is built on professionalism and a detached efficiency that borders on the mechanical. When confronted with a client who wants to be killed, he treats the request as another line item in his ledger, yet the unusual terms and personal stakes behind the assignment pique his curiosity. The clash of their motives—William’s yearning for release versus Leslie’s cold‑hearted commerce—sets up a tense, cat‑and‑mouse dance that crackles with wit, uneasy empathy, and the possibility that even the most hardened contract can’t ignore the fragile humanity lurking beneath the surface.

Last Updated: August 10, 2025 at 02:11

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Dark Comedies about Redemption like Dead in a Week: Or Your Money Back

Stories that find humor in the darkness and hope in unexpected connections.If you liked the blend of dark humor and heartfelt redemption in Dead in a Week: Or Your Money Back, you'll enjoy these movies. They feature characters facing serious struggles with a comedic lens, leading to surprising connections and hopeful conclusions.

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Narrative Summary

These narratives typically begin with a protagonist in a dark place, often through their own actions or despair. An unlikely partnership—sometimes with an antagonist—forces them to reassess their situation. The journey is punctuated by absurd or witty moments that lighten the serious subject matter, culminating in a redemptive, though often bittersweet, resolution.

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These films are grouped together because they masterfully mix dark comedy with character-driven redemption arcs. They share a specific tone where laughter exists alongside pain, and the emotional payoff comes from growth forged in unlikely circumstances.

Movies with Contractual Cat-and-Mouse Plots like Dead in a Week: Or Your Money Back

When a professional agreement turns personal, forcing both parties to change.Fans of the tense yet evolving dynamic between the hitman and his client in Dead in a Week: Or Your Money Back will appreciate these films. They explore stories where a professional arrangement spirals into something much more complex and personal.

tensecontractcat-and-mousemoral dilemmacharacter studyunlikely connectionsuspenseful

Narrative Summary

The plot is driven by a high-stakes agreement between two characters with conflicting goals, creating a built-in tension. As the deadline or terms of the contract approach, the relationship between the characters deepens or shifts, forcing one or both to question their original intentions. The central conflict evolves from a simple transaction into a profound moral or personal dilemma.

Why These Movies?

These movies share a specific narrative structure where a contract is the catalyst for a character-driven thriller or drama. The similarity lies in the pivot from a straightforward adversarial setup to a more nuanced exploration of human connection and change.

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Characters, Settings & Themes in Dead in a Week: Or Your Money Back

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