It’s not a great start when your movie writer hasn’t written a movie in 15 years. And “a Megan Fox vehicle” doesn’t exactly inspire quality filmmaking either. But as Homer Simpson stated in his infinite distracted wisdom, two wrongs make a right in Till Death, a pulpy fun thriller perfect to enjoy as Halloween approaches. And I hope this vehicle leads Fox right back to Jennifer’s Body 2, rectifying the horrible mistake studios and audiences made pandering that gem of a film.
Fox plays a basically walking comatose Emma Webster. She’s married unlovingly to her husband Mark (Eoin Macken), and even just going through the motions with an affair with Mark’s employee Tom (Aml Ameen). Emma’s traumatized from an assault in her past by a former stalker (Callan Mulvey), and has emotionally shut down. Frustrated by Emma’s transformation away from his “perfect girl” Mark fashions a luxurious anniversary for her, in hopes to reignite the flame, starting at a romantic winter getaway at their summer lakehouse…where he promptly commits suicide, handcuffing himself to Emma to figure out for herself how to escape her predicament.
The simple reason Till Death works is because every decision was thought through. Jason Carvey, the writer, knows the sell of the movie is the entirely silly premise of Megan Fox dragging a body around a house trying to escape her situation. So he throws in a lot of great jokes with Fox growing in exasperation as each possible solution instead becomes another obstacle to overcome. Also the way Fox uses the body when the situation becomes more dire later on can be ludicrously amusing. Till Death flirts with the incomprehensible line a lot (Fox’s escapability requires a magical silent spell sometimes), but mostly stays on the right side of the line because of Carvey’s script and S.K. Dale’s direction.
But this silliness is only a supportive part of the story. The main tale is about Emma escaping the obstacles, literally and figuratively, men have forced her to put into place. Carvey’s script swerves the morning after the anniversary, luring you into what you think is an erotic thriller, but instead turning the movie into a “trapped in the house” horror movie, as you learn the depths of Mark’s projection of Emma’s trauma into something that distanced her from him, making him resent her. As the decision becomes more harrowing, Emma makes a lot of smart decisions to try to escape her predicament; a needed trait, because her pursuers are also clever in their attempts to capture her. Those survival instinct help awaken Emma out of her coma, giving her the anger and resourcefulness to pull herself out of her predicament. The ending, which I won’t spoil, is surprisingly rich in its thematic resonances, something that’s shocking to say about a movie where Megan Fox is handcuffed to a body for a long section of the running time.
Hopefully Till Death leads to more fun Megan Fox projects. The perennially misused and objectified actress is a big reason this movie works, using that amazing screen presence to do a lot without having to say anything. Maybe she can team up with Carla Gugino from Gerald’s Game and do a Till Death 2 where both of them team up to tackle an even bigger crazier home invasion escape handcuffed to multiple bodies. Or they can beat the sh*t out of all the Decepticons in Transformers….6? 13? 24? I’ve lost count at this point.