Opening to mostly positive reviews, Noel Murray of the Los Angeles Times, described Don't Kill It as one of Lundgren's "most entertaining movies in years."

While chasing deer on a hunting trip in southern Mississippi, Gabriel's dog discovers and opens a small, unusual golden container.

After shooting and killing the dog in self-defense, Gabriel returns home, displaying the same unusual behaviors and black eyes.

A few days later, demon hunter Jebediah Woodley hears of the murders on the radio and travels to the small town to investigate.

At the same time, FBI agent Evelyn Pierce, who grew up in the area, has been assigned to investigate the case for possible links to domestic terrorism.

However, Pierce - along with Dunham, the local police chief - quickly dismiss Woodley's claims of demon activity and order him to be detained under the assumption that he is mentally ill. Whilst Pierce leaves to interview a witness to the most recent series of murders, Woodley advises her to ask about the killer's eyes.

Pierce learns that the husband's eyes also turned black before he went into a murderous rampage, and thus realizes Woodley is in fact telling the truth.

Later, Pierce visits her old home with Woodley and tells him that she drowned to death in her garden pool as a child, but was mysteriously brought back to life.

Due to the small budget, Mendez knew they weren't "going to cover the town in snow and pretend it's Alaska", so he had to adapt "very quickly" to the situation at hand.

He rehearsed different pages of dialogue and monologues in a short space of time while production was postponed on two occasions, which caused the character to grow on him.

Despite working with Mendez on Tales of Halloween (in 2015) and The Last Heist (the following year), Klebe still had to "put herself on tape" because they were auditioning a few people.

[11] On Klebe's performance, Lundgren said: she "plays her character pretty straight", which worked "quite well" in retrospect due to Woodley's "crazy and colorful" nature.

During the prep time, I think I got five or six hours of sleep a night if I was lucky as we were in the holiday season and had to finish filming by Christmas."

[25] Domestic box office takings are not known,[5] however the film did gross $8,196 during a cinematic release in the United Arab Emirates on January 25, 2018.

[5] "Judging from the crowd's reaction at its recent Fantastic Fest screening, I am convinced that Don't Kill It might ultimately fare best with the general public."

Unlike Lundgren's other movies, Don't Kill It "revels in his dry yet goofy sense of humor, rather than the taciturn killer he was born to play."

[28] Bloody Disgusting's Trace Thurman came to the same conclusion as Whittaker, stating: there is "plenty of tongue in cheek" in which "Dolph Lundgren [is given] a chance to shine."

Contrarily, Thurman took aim at Klebe, stating: "[she] is serviceable as Pierce but she is stuck playing the Felix Ungar to Lundgren's Oscar Madison.

"[29] On the other hand, Ari Drew of Dread Central said: "On the surface, Don't Kill It has all of the makings of a standard Syfy original action-horror offering; the dialogue is often ridiculous, the action sequences outrageous, and the characterization is relatively thin.

[30] Noel Murray of the Los Angeles Times, called the film one of Lundgren's "most entertaining movies in years."

He praised screenwriters Dan Berk and Robert Olsen for their "clever story about a supernatural force that turns its human hosts mindlessly homicidal".

On the contrary, he criticized Mike Mendez for his editing, claiming "his many, many set-up scenes are to clunky", but on a positive note gave him praise for the fast pace and "lightness" of the film.

[31] Matt Donato of We Got This Covered, awarded three out of five stars, stating: "Don't Kill It is some DIY insanity that leaves more scattered limbs than an overturned Halloween decoration truck".

[6] Michael Nordine of The Village Voice, gave a somewhat negative review, stating: "[Lundgren] seems to hover just above the material, aware of its silliness but willing the indulge it all the same.

Those who favor gore above all else will be at home amid the blood and guts, but anyone hoping for more than a VOD time-killer that's occasionally in on the joke of its own ridiculousness is barking up the wrong tree.