To Your Last Death (2019) Film Review
A talented voice cast with the likes of William Shatner (Star Trek) and Morena Baccarin (Deadpool 1&2) hope to shine attention on this niche 2-D animated adult horror feature who’s bloodlust is enGROSSing.
Admittedly, the world of 2-D animation is one I have had a criminally low amount of exposure with. So I entered hesitantly into this directorial feature debut from Jason Axinn. Unsure what I would be greeted by. To my surprise To Your Last Death turned out to be a delight of preposterous proportions. Possessing gore and utter bravery in the types of subjects it stretches to for its scares. Unafraid of exploiting taboo topics like self-harm while showing them respect and understanding.
Willfully estranged, the virtuous daughter of an abusive billionaire war profiter, Miriam DeKalb (Dani Lennon) was the only survivor of a family reunion of a father and his four children. Coincidentally, which had more toxicity and brewing hatred than has been seen onscreen since Rian Johnson’s whodunnit, Knives Out. She’s the only survivor until she’s given a chance – in classic video game style – by the mysterious Gamemaster (Morena Baccarin, Deadpool) to replay the night with her new knowledge for the entertainment of supernatural overlord gamblers.
Modern horror influences run rife. The tribal family blood bath and euphoric satisfaction of the unity of factions from Ready or Not (2019) very present. The Groundhog Day device recently seen in the Happy Death Day movies is also there but used pleasingly less repetitively. Comic book nods feature with a bat signal shaped cloud that seems unlikely to be unintentional. Even the bold hues evoke a classic comic book aesthetic.
Still bitter from his kid’s betrayal when they scuppered his Vice Presidential opportunities. After outing him as an abuser and a morally void war profiter. The ruthless Mr Cyrus Dekalb (Ray Wise, Twin Peaks, RoboCop) dreams of vengeful satisfaction, and so he enacts it at the ridiculously plotted family reunion.
Lusting for ultimate satisfaction, Miriam’s fathers personally tailors the brilliant set-piece deaths of each of his disappointing and unworthy successors on their gravest mistake against him. There’s a slack homosexual son, a trophy wife with a self-harming problem and the son who attempted to oust him from the position as head of the family firm.
Raw and reddy, To Your Last Death managed to straddle the line of typical horror absurdity and self-aware parody, retaining a hunger for the disconcerting in brilliantly repulsing scenes.
Animation is sharply etched with tactile pencil marks, detailed and expressive faces, rich colours and particularly vivacious reds.
The red of blood pumps through the whole of To Your Last Death, with rich-hued, raw reds exploding on the screen when blood isn’t dripping from it.
While I may have enjoyed more instants of wholly graphic gore (which it refrains from – with a notable exception featuring eyes…), To Your Last Death’s best moments are when it becomes horrifyingly real. Dripping with a stressful intensity.
Disgusting scenes led by the vindictive father (the self-harm one I referred to earlier and an ineffective touchscreen) are delightful sparks of bravery and creativity. Which horror should encourage and TYLD delivers them with terrifying spirit. Even when it dips into cliche with chainsaws, its effective horror (which is rarer than you’d think). But its also more subversive and satirical than it may first seem.
An edge of wit and self-awareness is present in the latter periods when it goes maddeningly wild. Pushing itself to cleverly satire motivations and plausibility in horror with self-deprecating quips.
The narrative may be utterly absurd but the gruesome thrills haul you through and there’s an edge to the feature which allows me to look past my hesitations. It’s unapologetic and impressively bold in its approach. I like that in my horror films.
