[Review] Till Death… or not
Content Warning - suicide, violence, blood.
Till Death is a slow starting psychological horror that is well and truly worth waiting for the action that develops at an intense pace. Till Dead is the directorial debut of Scott Dale and stars Megan Fox, Eoin Macken, and Call Mulvey, and Aml Ameen. This isolated home invasion thriller is a fun watch if you prefer something easy and entertaining. The film gives off Gerald’s Game vibes, and I was absolutely there for it!
Megan Fox plays Emma Webster, a young housewife married to her insufferable husband, Mark, who is a pompous partner in a high-end law firm. On their ten-year anniversary, Mark has planned a surprise that sees them at a high-end restaurant, with Emma receiving criticism for her choices in clothing. Mark delivers some petty lines that make me want to smack him out for being so horrible to his wife. They are clearly in a rough spot in their marriage, sitting at the table barely speaking to each other, and purchasing one another gifts that clearly aren’t in the recipient’s tastes.
On their drive home, Mark tells Emma that he has a surprise for her, which ends at their Lake House, all an attempt to save their marriage. Mark has prepared multiple surprises throughout the house, which leads Emma to their bedroom. The next morning, Emma awakens to find herself handcuffed to her husband, who shoots himself in the head. SURPRISE! Unable to escape her husband’s plot to keep her shackled to him for eternity, Emma must face off against two murderous intruders. The twists, psychological frustration, and game of survival make for an interesting and mesmeric experience.
Emma is an incredibly smart and intuitive character who was enjoyable to watch develop throughout the film. There were some moments of dialogue that are jarring and don’t suit the particular situation, especially moments between Mark and Emma—maybe it’s just her utter distaste for her husband. Following Mark’s death, Emma became charismatic and often threw out some jokes that were understandable because she’s dragging her dead ass husband around the lake house screaming at shackled corpse “I am going to cut myself free of you if it’s the last thing that I do”. As we see Emma attempt to get out of the house, we discover more and more about her previous life and the double life she had been leading.
Mark has planned everything to the last detail. There isn’t a single sharp object in the house. The car has no fuel, and Emma is struggling to lug around her dead weight husband. We hear Emma go through the motions of being attached to her psychologically abusive husband, stating that she has always had to carry him and his dead weight around in their relationship. Emma does not hold back on calling Mark out for being the horrible husband that he was in life and is now in death. Megan Fox is a formidable force in this film with her ingenuity and clever, quick thinking—it’s a beautiful experience watching her back on the screen for a horror film (where a lot of us would argue she belongs). There is something so wonderful about watching an intelligent woman on the screen trying everything possible to get rid of the man unwillingly attached to her.
When the intruders arrive at the lake house, Emma leaps right into combat mode. She might not have any training, but she ultimately can hold her own in an incredibly tactile and impressive way. There is no doubt in my mind with how she leaps into action, using anything at her disposal to deter the intruders that Emma is done with violent men coming into her life. We gain a lot of sympathy for Emma and the situation that she is in even though we find out about her less than perfect history as a married woman and the fact that Mark is clearly a control freak - attempting to ruin her life from beyond a very warm grave.
There are some moments that are absolute cringe material, and I won’t go into them to save you from that spoiler grey area. Along with the cringe material, there are the plot holes I cannot forgive, including a perfectly fine intruder who can stop our hero Emma after being smashed with a golf club. That’s not to say that it’s not an enjoyable film. The only criticism I would have would be a few inconsistencies where I would have hoped for a more realistic approach. They shot the entire film against an icy cold winter in what looks like upstate New York (I have no idea; I am Australian). It is freezing, bleak, and by the looks of it, there is not a single soul in the vicinity. It’s basically the perfect place for Mark to mess with Emma and enact his horrible revenge plot. I’m usually pretty turned off by home invasion plots, however, this felt different. Maybe it was the twist of the identity of the intruders that changed it up for me. There were so many times where I held my breath waiting for Emma to be caught or killed, only to see her pull off some practical plan to evade the intruders.
Whilst the movie takes some time to get to the interesting and fun part where Emma is; soaked in blood, wearing a white business shirt, and playing cat and mouse with the intruders. It certainly is worth the time to get there. Taking place in the cold and isolated landscape of somewhere in New York, the anxiety-inducing experience of Emma plotting her escape is brilliant and fun to witness. After all the twists and turns that Mark had meticulously planned out for Emma to endure, we eventually dive into a fast-paced tortuous game of hiding and seek that sees Megan Fox hold her own as a final girl.
