Studio: Screen Media
Director: S.K. Dale
Writer: Jason Carvey
Producer: David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick, Jeffrey Greenstein, Jonathan Yunger, Yariv Lerner, Les Weldon, Tanner Mobley, Jana Karaivanova
Stars: Megan Fox, Eoin Macken, Callan Mulvey, Jack Roth, Aml Ameen
Review Score:
Summary:
A woman chained to her dead husband’s body encounters even more madness when she must also survive a deadly home invasion.
Review:
I can appreciate the straightforwardness of a simple plot, and “Till Death” has one. Stranded in a remote lake house, Megan Fox ends up shackled to her dead husband’s corpse and has to survive an attack by intruders. That’s all there is to it, and that’s a great start.
What sucks though, is when you’re well aware of what the premise is, yet you still have to sit through a really stretched setup just to get to where you already know you’re going. In “Till Death’s” case, the first act clock ticks for 24 minutes before the handcuffs finally click. Granted, some sort of background buildup has to take place. But a full third of the film is a long time to repeatedly wonder, “Will they get to it already? How many shots does one movie need of people walking around while sending suspicious stares at one another?”
Eoin Macken lays it on thicker than a milkshake made of fog as the husband who suspects Megan Fox of having an affair. He gives one of those vaguely villainous performances that’s mostly made up of subtly suggestive statements and potentially threatening leers that seem to say he knows what’s up, yet can the conspiring characters be 100% certain? It’s clue #1 that “Till Death” deals in soap opera suspense that’s deeply dependent on disbelief. As end credits rolled, I tried picturing what a real-life news story would look like if it recounted Megan Fox’s ordeal in detail. I had to laugh at the notion because there isn’t a person in the world who could possibly buy how every increasingly crazy event unfolds. This is definitely something that only happens in the movies.
At that 24-minute mark, “Till Death” rouses snoozy viewers with a wild wake-up call. Unless it’s previously been spoiled, the way in which Fox winds up hitched to her dead husband rockets right at you as all kinds of mentally messed up, kicking off the crux of the movie with a proper shock indicative of the insanity that follows.
Jason Carvey’s script starts out smart in that it anticipates every eyebrow anyone is likely to raise regarding Fox’s peculiar predicament. Why doesn’t she use her cellphone to call for help? Why doesn’t she find something sharp for sawing through the chain? Why doesn’t she escape in the car used to drive there? “Till Death” thought of all of those same questions and answers them by baking explanations into the core concept.
Carvey’s script doesn’t stay clever, however. “Till Death” gets caught up in clichés when two thieves arrive, one of whom is the nervous toady type whose guilty conscience didn’t sign up for the violence perpetrated by his partner. Fox, of course, happens to hide somewhere she can inadvertently eavesdrop on a serendipitous conversation during which the criminal duo lays out key details regarding what they’re doing there and why.
At this point, “Till Death” turns into a rather repetitive series of hide-and-seek scenes, cat-and-mouse games, and other “ooh, they almost got her!” situations. We’ll see Megan Fox holding her breath somewhere, the camera will cut to a stalker creeping up on her location, then when he gets there, suddenly she’s gone! Fox moves to a new spot, maybe a little something gets put into play for later, and a similar sequence takes place that ends with a “where’d she go?” moment.
Before that point, “Till Death” drags its feet more mundanely by filling up on shots of Fox pulling the corpse from one place to another while huffing and puffing. That’s the flipside of simple setups. They don’t often open doors that can fill a feature with 90 nonstop minutes of innovation or imagination.
Although it too hits a number of familiar notes, “Till Death’s” action-intensive finale flies by with entertaining ferocity. It’s a reminder that the recipe for a successfully satisfying viewing requires seeing “Till Death” as an R-rated Lifetime drama that takes a sudden turn into Stephen King-style horror. The creators basically built a home invasion thriller out of a hook that’s enjoyably devilish, if a little daffy, but also intermittently dull. Besides, how seriously should an audience take something like this anyway?
Review Score: 60
If you want to see impossible amounts of blood explode crimson colors like the world’s worst version of a gender reveal, well, “Abigail” at least has that.