Death By Numbers

Between the haunting montages of the grim reaper and the intensely dark prose, there is something deeply relevant about this documentary. It’s difficult to separate the subject matter from the art in Death By Numbers, as the film’s primary focus is to explore the grief and despair experienced by survivors of a school shooting. I want to be sensitive to that, as I have not lived through what Samantha Fuentes has endured. I’m judging a film, not someone's personal grief process. That said, I do feel that the stylistic choices in the doc occasionally feel stunted. Perhaps this was intentional, but it pulled me out of the story at times. Some of the stylistic choices—those dramatic, goth Tumblr-esque montages and dark prose—feel forced. The elements that seemed most worth delving into felt underexplored, and as a result, they came across as half-formed.

One of the most compelling moments comes during Sam’s speech in court, confronting her assailant. That moment felt raw and powerful—effective in a way that much of the documentary strives for. Death By Numbers certainly makes an impact, pushing me to think deeply about the horrors American school children face. The film does a commendable job of calling out the psychotic, narcissistic nature of the killers and pushing back against the power they sought to claim. However, I wish the documentary had dug deeper into certain aspects of its narrative. For instance, the juxtaposition of a white supremacist school shooter attacking a Holocaust studies class is compelling, yet in the film, this idea feels underdeveloped. It’s a story that deserved a deeper exploration.