Writer(s): Jason Carvey
Starring: Megan Fox, Eoin Macken, Callan Mulvey and Jack Roth
Till Death is one of those movies with a plot so preposterous that seeing it is the only way you could believe such a thing exists. It's a mix of ridiculous and fascinating and really opens the door for a lot of things to happen between its vague plot line.
Megan Fox plays Emma, a woman unhappily married to a rich douchebag. He's a type of character that the film goes to great lengths to let you know is a villain, as everything he does is questionable and sleazy. Why can't bad guys be normal people? Why do they always have to be so terrible that it's completely obvious? Maybe it's because the filmmakers don't want anyone to be able to identify with such terrible characters; make them likable and it insinuates anyone could be evil and - while that’s the truth - it isn’t the right mood for entertainment.
Anyway, as the film opens Megan Fox is telling her lover that she can no longer see him. Her reasoning is that today happens to be her anniversary, and she wants to spend it with her husband for reasons unknown.
At any rate, Emma's douchebag husband takes her on a getaway to an isolated cabin in the middle of nowhere, during the winter season. He frames it as part of her anniversary gift. But things take a dark turn when she wakes up chained to him, and is forced to watch as he blows his brains out inches in front of her.
Shackled to her dead husband, and in virtual isolation, she must find a way out of this nightmare scenario. Unfortunately for her, he was almost as smart as he was douchey, removing all sharp objects from the house, destroying her phone, and making things as hard for her from beyond the grave as he did while he was alive.
Really, it's a plot that sounds limited and stupid at first glance, but the potential complexity of it kind of grows on you after a little while. You think about all the things you take for granted, like being able to walk around freely, and then have to think about doing all that stuff with 200 lb of weight attached to you. At its best, it almost manages to be intelligent, but it's unfortunately done in by a number of copouts and groan-inducing sequences that break up the momentum, and take the viewer out of the story.
You know the scene in movies where the bad guy is looking for the protagonist, who is hiding around the corner inches away, yet when the bad guy turns the corner, they’re suddenly gone? Even though there was no possible way they could escape, or move so silently, in such a short amount of time? That’s basically the whole damn movie. It's true that horror movies and thrillers rely on this a lot, but it’s usually at least kept to a minimum. Till Death uses that device no fewer than five times, with increasingly ridiculous results every single time. It’s like the writers painted themselves into a corner, and rather than think of a logical way out, just defaulted to that over and over again.
There is some suspense, but not as much as there could be, thanks to the rather predictable nature of the script. Every event is pretty clearly foreshadowed, so as long as you're paying attention you'll know pretty much exactly what's to come and what you can expect.
Megan Fox is clearly one of those actresses who's made it as far as she has based purely on looks, but she turns in a competent performance here as the damsel in distress. No, she's obviously not going to win any awards for her performance, but it’s the kind of role that proves she’s more than just a pretty face. The rest of the cast follow suit, almost making the material convincing despite its flaws. Unfortunately, the issues behind the camera doom Till Death from blooming into the cult classic - or even minor classic - it could have been.
RATING: 5/10.
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