An Average Movie-Goer’s Review
Spoilers! If you don’t want spoilers – check out the Spoiler-Free post
I love horror movies and if I’m going to watch them anyway, why not write an entertaining/funny review from the POV of an average movie-goer and not a professional critic.
Today we’re looking at 2021’s Till Death
During their anniversary a woman (Megan Fox) wakes up handcuffed to her dead husband and things only get worse when someone from her past shows up for revenge.
Is it Scary?
No, the movie relies on suspense but also feels more like an action movie than horror or thriller. You might be entertained and a little disgusted by some light gore but you won’t be scared… at all.
Detailed Plot:
The film opens on our main character, Emma (played by Megan Fox) driving and on the verge of tears. We see in flashbacks that she is coming from seeing her lover, Tom (played by Aml Ameen) and having just ended the relationship with him.
Before leaving Tom makes one last attempt to change her mind asking her to meet with him the following day, she declines stating that it’s her anniversary which is a pretty good reason why not. In the present we see Emma arrive somewhere and put her wedding ring back on.
The following day Emma arrives at her husband, Mark’s (played by Eoin Macken) office and while waiting for him to arrive, she finds a police file on his desk. The file is of Bobby Ray (played by Callan Mulvey) who we learn attacked and stabbed Emma some time ago in an attempted robbery. Emma was able to fight him off using her keys and causing him to lose an eye.
Mark abruptly arrives and we get the sense he’s a bit of a control freak as he immediately questions Emma’s choice in dress and says there’s still time to ‘stop by the apartment and change’.
Due to his abruptness Emma hid the picture of her attacker behind her which is quickly found by Mark. Honestly it wasn’t a good hiding spot.
When Emma questions why Mark has the file we find out Mark is a criminal defense attorney but was once on the state’s side and put Bobby Ray away. Now Bobby Ray is up for parole and he was asked for his opinion.
The two get on the elevator to head for dinner and guess who gets on as well? Freaking Tom, turns out Tom and Mark work together, though Mark seems completely oblivious to the affair.
Later at dinner, Mark gives Emma a steel necklace and she gives him Super Bowl tickets which he’s less than enthusiastic about. During the gift exchange, at another table, a man asks a woman to marry him and she agrees. In the bathroom Emma finds that same woman crying and offers her some advice.
She tells her nothing is set in stone despite the huge commitment she just made. The woman essentially tells her to mind her own business, so that’s cool.
The scene feels like a weird addition unless it comes back up later in some twist, otherwise it just feels tacked on to reiterate how much Emma regrets her 11 years of marriage. Which is something I think we understood from the whole cheating thing.
As they leave the restaurant we see Mark has given their waitress the Super Bowl Tickets as a tip. Outside, Mark tells Emma he has another surprise for her and tells her to reach into her pockets where she finds a blindfold.
Hours later the two are driving with Emma blindfolded and they arrive at their lake house. It appears as if Mark wants to rekindle their relationship. A little while later, in the house, Mark has laid out a trail of rose petals for Emma to follow leading to various memories around the house.
The petals lead Emma to a record player that honestly plays some super loud music so I’m counting that as a jump scare. The petals then lead Emma to their bedroom where Mark is waiting with glasses of champagne.
Mark apologizes for how bad things have been and promises to fix things. The two sleep together and the following morning Emma finds herself handcuffed to Mark.
Oh, and then he blows his fucking brains out with no explanation. Weirdly enough Emma’s reaction is less “Why the fuck?!” and more along the lines of “What the fuck.” It’s almost as if she wasn’t surprised it happened and looks more inconvenienced about the whole thing.
She quickly tosses Mark’s body off the bed which drags her to the ground because she forgot she was still handcuffed to him. After finding out the phone lines are dead, she grabs the gun and tries to shoot the handcuff chain but there are no more bullets in the gun.
Turns out Mark realized there’s no need to purchase multiple bullets when you’re shooting yourself in the temple. Emma throws the gun across the room where it officially becomes Chekhov’s.
Emma drags Mark’s body to the closet and finds it completely empty except for her wedding dress. Behind that she finds a safe which I’m sure will come into play later.
Because it would be ridiculous to put on the dress, Emma removes Mark’s shirt and wears that. She then places his body on the dress to make it easier to drag him around the home. Unfortunately when trying to bring him downstairs she slips and the two tumble all the way down.
Surprisingly she doesn’t break a single bone and appears to be perfectly fine despite falling down a flight of stairs with 180+ pounds of dead weight attached to her arm.
Making it to the front door, Emma finds it open and sees a snowstorm has covered the area in a few inches of snow making it pretty difficult for her to find help since she has no shoes. She then drags Mark to the kitchen where she finds her phone submerged in a flower vase.
Finding the all the drawers empty Emma eventually does find the car keys in the trash which seems like an oversight from Mark. Emma removes and wears Mark’s pants while also wrapping her feet in ripped parts of the dress and heads outside.
She reaches the car but finds that Mark has siphoned all the gas out. Turning on the car she hears a message Mark has left her where he reveals he knew about her affair but also states he didn’t kill himself just because of it and that’s pretty hard to believe at this point.
Emma drags Mark’s body (her thighs and lower back have to be burning!) back into the house so she can clean Mark’s blood off of her face. There, she notices the necklace Mark gave her the night before cannot be taken off.
Dragging Mark’s body down to the basement she finds all the tools gone, which at this point she shouldn’t be surprised by.
Back upstairs Emma finds Mark has replaced the pictures of their memories with pictures of her and Tom along with pictures of her attacker, Bobby Ray. There’s also now a new tape player that plays the recording of Mark’s interview with Emma after her attack.
After smashing the tape player, Emma hears a car approaching and heads for the front door. The visitor bangs on the door but Emma is able to reach and lock it before they can. Turns out the visitor is Tom and we find out Mark used Emma’s phone to send him messages telling him she needs help.
She opens the door and explains the situation to Tom in a completely nonchalant ‘I’m tired of this bullshit’ way. Tom then reveals there was a raid at the office the night before and charges were brought against Mark for some illegal stuff.
The two realize Mark’s plan was to frame them for his murder which doesn’t exactly make sense given the evidence but the movie doesn’t linger too long on this so you shouldn’t either.
Wanting to call the police Tom realizes he left his phone in the car and the two notice another car approaching. Tom recognizes the car as one he passed a mile back that was parked on the side of the road therefore, suspicious.
The car arrives and Jimmy (played by Jack Roth) approaches Tom with a fake story about fixing a burst pipe. When Tom refuses to let him in and calls him out on his lies, the other man in the truck gets out and is revealed to be Bobby Ray.
Before Tom can do anything, Bobby stabs Tom multiple times and pushes his body through the front door. Jimmy was unaware of what the plan was and is shocked, questioning Bobby’s actions while Bobby takes Tom’s car keys.
Emma, who has dragged Mark’s body to the other side of staircase, witnesses the whole thing.
Bobby attempts to calm Jimmy down and we find out the two are brothers. Bobby then tells Jimmy to search for Emma which Jimmy reluctantly does.
He follows a blood trail leading to the boat shed where Emma has dragged Mark’s body. This sort of doesn’t make sense since Emma has dragged Mark around the first floor several places so there should be multiple blood trails going all over instead of just the most recent direction.
Anyway, at the boat shed Emma is chopping off parts of Mark’s hand using a boat anchor but hides under a cloth as Jimmy approaches.
Seeing only Mark’s bloody body, Jimmy freaks out and runs out of the boat shed calling out for Bobby, tripping on his way out. In the time it takes for them to return Emma is able to free herself from the body and hides under the boat.
Bobby then reveals Mark is the one who hired them and now they need to find Emma as she is one of only two people who know the combination to the safe, Mark being the other. The two head back to the house to continue looking for Emma.
Emma then finds a gasoline canister in the boat and drags it to the garage.
Back in the house the two thieves inspect the safe and Jimmy states they’ll need a fingerprint to open it, betting it’s Mark’s that they need. Bobby orders him to go back to the boat shed and drag Mark’s body back to the house. Why cutting a finger off isn’t an option is never explained.
While dragging the gas cannister, Emma hears Jimmy coming outside and she hides in the snow. By ‘hides in the snow’ I mean she literally just lays down in the snow and this somehow works. Honestly I had to check to see if this movie was a comedy.
As Emma fills the car with gasoline, Bobby hears the sounds coming from the garage and goes to investigate. Realizing her plan, he slashes the tires of the truck and just misses Emma.
She rushes out of the garage and seeing Jimmy leaving the boat shed, she chooses to go into the basement through the cellar doors. Following the new sounds Bobby heads into the cellar but Emma uses the keys to turn on the car’s alarm forcing both thieves to run back to the garage.
Jimmy cuts the alarm wire in the car and the two head back inside but find that Emma has taken Tom’s shoes. They split up and Bobby checks the attic where he sees something hidden under a cloth on a rocking chair.
Removing the cloth reveals it was a diversion set up by Emma who appears next to him and hits him with a golf club throwing him back and sending him through the floor.
Jimmy rushes upstairs and checks on Bobby only to get smacked with the golf club and tossed into a room. Emma takes Tom’s keys from Bobby and runs to the car. Unfortunately Bobby catches up to her and pulls her out but not before she is able to call the police with Tom’s phone.
While pinning down Emma, Bobby takes the phone from her, breaks it, and removes the battery tossing both away. Jimmy arrives and tries to convince Bobby to leave but when that doesn’t work he quits. Bobby grabs him and threatens him, stating there are 200K in diamonds in the safe.
At this point I audibly said, “that’s it?” This just seems like a lot of work for 200K.
Emma tells Bobby she doesn’t know the combination to the safe but he doesn’t believe her and knocks her out. She then awakens a short time later back in the bedroom once again handcuffed to Mark.
Bobby and Jimmy drag the safe into the room and Bobby reveals Mark told him the combination to the safe is the day Mark proposed. Emma refuses to give the combination as she thinks he will just kill her anyway and she’s probably right.
Electing to go with torture to get her to talk, Bobby goes to cut off her toes one by one but is stopped by Jimmy. He tosses Jimmy across the room but Jimmy finds the Chekhov gun from earlier and points it at him, not knowing the gun is empty.
Now in charge, Jimmy agrees to unlock Emma from her handcuffs as long as she gives them the combination, then they’ll take the diamonds and leave her alive. Emma agrees while Bobby has no choice but to agree and drops his knife.
Jimmy frees Emma and Bobby opens the safe but instead of diamonds finds a hand saw which is as far from diamonds as one person can get. The engraved hand saw reads, “The diamonds you seek, lay close to her heart.”
Emma realizes the diamonds are in the steel necklace she can’t remove. Bobby then has a Saw moment and realizes the hand saw is not to cut through the necklace, but instead to cut through her neck.
Jimmy attempts to use a bolt cutter on the necklace to no avail and Bobby uses the opportunity to snatch the gun from him. He tosses Jimmy aside and attempts to shoot Emma but you need bullets for that.
Emma leaps over to the knife Bobby dropped earlier but he grabs her and slams her on the ground. Jimmy then jumps on Bobby’s back and the two struggle with Bobby slamming Jimmy against the wall.
Unfortunately he accidentally backs him into a metal wall hanger that kills Jimmy instantly.
Heartbroken, Bobby turns to Emma, who has now grabbed the knife, and blames her for Jimmy’s death completely forgetting the last 30 seconds. The two fight, Bobby easily gaining the upper-hand and stabbing Emma in the leg.
He then attempts to stab her in the face but Emma uses the picture of her wedding to block the knife and throw it away.
She grabs the bolt cutters and smacks Bobby across the head knocking him off of her. Thinking quickly she handcuffs him to Mark’s body and runs toward the garage. Bobby and Dead-Mark follow closely behind and even tumble down the stairs just as Emma did earlier, unsurprisingly he also breaks nothing.
Emma reaches the garage and starts the car but the driveway is blocked by both Tom and Jimmy’s car. She instead drives through the other side of the garage just as Bobby arrives so she gives him a ride out.
Due to the ice and the slashed tires that Emma forgot about, she crashes into the boat shed and gets knocked out briefly. She’s able to wake up and crawl out onto the iced-over lake as Bobby arrives at the car with his knife.
Bobby grabs her and attempts to stab her but misses, imbedding his knife into the ice. He elects to simply choke her but Emma pulls the knife out of the ice and stabs Bobby in the shoulder, tossing him off of her.
The impact causes the ice to crack underneath them and drag Mark’s body, who by the way is still handcuffed to Bobby, down into the lake. Before Bobby is dragged under he grabs Emma and takes her with him.
Underwater, Bobby grabs Emma holding him close to her as Mark’s body drags them further down. Emma grabs the knife in Bobby’s shoulder and stabs him in his one good eye causing him to release her.
Emma swims up to the ice and spends some time NOT using the sharp end of the knife to cut through the ice. She finally does and breaks free, climbing out of the water.
The movie does that thing where it appears she dies and we see the view from above the ice where she dramatically breaks free. She’s also not shivering at all which I’m all for a happy ending but hypothermia is real.
As she lays on the ice we hear police in the distance. Emma then removes her wedding ring and it rolls on the ice falling into the water to remind us her marriage is over in case you weren’t paying attention to the movie.
Review:
Till Death is a pretty straight-forward movie, there’s really no big elaborate twists and there’s nothing that will leave you shocked in it’s predictable ending. Megan Fox, Callen Mulvey, and Jack Roth act their roles nicely despite the dialogue sometimes feeling off.
I did honestly have to check if the movie was supposed to be a comedy at one point because of Emma’s reaction to Mark killing himself and the scene with the stranger in the bathroom telling Emma to mind her business.
Emma’s whatever attitude to Mark’s death felt out of place and jarring with what the story appeared to be trying to setting up. It felt as if Emma’s arc was going to be her changing from a passive character to the one who takes control of her situation.
It’s clear Mark was extremely controlling in their relationship and, given Emma’s prior attack, she appeared to be traumatized. But, when Mark kills himself there’s no visible shift or earned moment from a passive character to take-charge active character, it just happens. It would have been nice to see more of Emma’s hatred for Mark before his death so the character shift wouldn’t be so jarring but too late for that.
Despite this it is entertaining to see Megan Fox’s Emma take charge and become a capable protagonist for the rest of the movie even as things get worse. It’s not going to win any awards but it’s still an entertaining movie that you’ll end up liking if you’re looking to pass the time.
Cast IMDB