I knew nothing about this film going in, but I had heard that it was anchored by Megan Fox's impressive performance. To my surprise, I found her to be the worst thing about this movie, which had already lost me thanks to how much it ripped off Gerald's Game. There are elements of a great horror thriller buried under all the clichés and one-note characters. You've got a psychotic control freak husband who finds out his wife is cheating on him with his partner at his law firm. And his solution to this? Blow his brains out in front of her after setting up an elaborate revenge scheme involving a killer who has a long-standing beef with his wife. Not exactly brilliant.
Fox plays Emma, a woman trapped in a controlling, loveless marriage by her sociopath husband Mark (Macken). Mark revels in keeping her in line, and when he finds out she's been sleeping with his law partner Tom (Ameen), he concocts a harebrained scheme to kill them both. First, he gives Emma a steel necklace (that secretly contains diamonds), then he drives her out to their secluded lake house on their anniversary, and when she wakes up the following day, he shoots himself in the head and she realizes she's handcuffed to his dead body. Also, he hired a killer to take care of Emma; the same killer who traumatized her years earlier. Like I said, all the pieces are there, but it's Megan Fox's wooden, disinterested performance that holds this film back, as well as the forgettable side characters. Till Death is barely a horror film. In fact, it's mostly a rehash of better movies. No sociopathic genius would ever kill himself as part of the first phase of an evil plan. It's just ridiculous. I found myself watching the clock more than a few times, which is painful for a film that doesn't even hit an hour and a half. |
You know what the best type of movies are? The one which completely surprise you. It could be the actors involved don’t really impress you. Or maybe the trailers didn’t do a good job of selling the movie to you. But you end up watching it anyway one day and walk out of it pleasantly surprised. Take Till Death, for instance. It starred Megan Fox who hasn’t really impressed me all that much with her movie choices. And the trailer just made it look like another run of the mill horror flick. Needless to say, I wasn’t rushing to see it. But I gave it a chance, nonetheless. Because of this, I walked away from an entertaining as hell, intense, and gripping film anchored by a wonderful performance from Megan Fox. No wonder they say to never judge a book by its cover.
As most people know, Fox has had a rough couple of years in Hollywood. She openly spoke against one of the worst human beings, and directors, in Michael Bay. Instead of getting praise for speaking up, she got mocked and shunned while he continued to make terrible movies. I really hope this movie turns things around for her. Fox spends a good chunk of this film handcuffed to her dead husband before she has to deal with home invaders. With both of these scenarios, she excels at portraying a mixture of hopelessness, despair, and aggression as things go from bad to worse. Not to say she slacks in the beginning. She also does a tremendous job of showing her emptiness in being trapped in a marriage with a controlling man. While most of the praise can be heaped on Fox easily, the film itself is very good. It’s a simple story which builds its scares and plot developments organically as the film progresses. There is no filler. Everything pertains to the plot at hand. If you haven’t been able to tell yet, I was genuinely surprised and impressed with this movie. Fox delivers one of her best performances. One I hope gets her more notice for bigger films. If not, I’ll take these indie movies gladly. The story itself is engaging and had me on the edge of my seat at various times. Look, check this out for yourself and, maybe, be careful who you marry. |