Music, Movies & Media

Music I like and movies I see

TBR|TBP

Artists

Goldfrapp, Depache Mode, Zeal & Ardor, Mammoth Weed Wizard Bastard, Al-Namrood, Frayle, Savlonic, Mars Argo, Klangkuenstler, Megadeth, Boris, Women of Doom (Various Artists), Sigh, Batushka, Vale of Amonition, Imperial Circus Dead Decadence, Testament, Fleshgod Apocalyspse, Defacing God, Cattle Decapitation, Mogli

REVIEWS

FULL SPOILERS

Death Becomes Her (1992) *FULL SPOILERS SUMMARY*

Death Becomes Her (1992) is a film that deals with a woman, Helen, whose love life throughout the years has seemingly been thwarted by the antics of her struggling actress friend, Madaline. Before introducing her most recent fiance, Ernest, to the stage actress Madaline, she pleads to him in desperation that she has stolen all of her past beau's over time, expressing terror over losing him, begging him not to be dissuaded. Nonetheless, he is stupified by his lust, unwilling to heed her vanity, as Helen watches them from the sidelines, tense and hawk-eyed. Soon, broken from the stress of losing another fiance, Helen has a mental breakdown, becoming confined to a mental hospital for at least half a year. So obsessed and gorged with her betrayal, the other patients scream and addle as she recounts Madaline at group therapy once again. Fourteen years have passed, and although married and wealthy, the pair are miserable. Madaline, eternally engrossed about aging, Ernest, a withdrawn, alcoholic, shell of what he once was. Madaline has taken all the treatments allowed by the policy of the office of what can be assumed to be a plastic surgery unit or something of that nature. The manager then gives her the card of an exclusive address that will serve her better than they can. She brushes it off, ripping up the card. When observing the two, there are overtones of mental abuse seen in the marriage. They are invited to a party in which Helen is the hostess, amused, Madaline accepts only to stroke her ego at the pitfalls of the state of her old frienemy. At the party, she searches for her old friend, not out of curiosity but to gorge on her assumed crestfallen state. Her eye locks on a fat woman, who she believes to be Helen, she chuckles, safe within the confines of her own ego and power status. Madaline then sees the thin, glamorous woman beyond the stranger. Left in utter dismay, an urgency seizes her body and commands her to walk forward. The auburn-haired Helen in a red dress deals with a flurry of fans circling her with her book to be signed. They greet, and the pendulum has swung in the other direction. An onlooker, a fan of Helen's book remarks in amazement at her looks as she cannot believe the author is fifty. Helen sows the seeds of doubt and tells Ernest that his wife ruined his career. Madaline is dismayed further as she catches one of her lovers with another, younger woman. In a moment of desperation, she lines the two torn fragments of the business card together and drives recklessly to the mysterious, esoteric address. Greeted by the ominous empty ambiance of the estate, she trundles in confusion. She is greeted by two barechested men and brought to a strange otherworldly woman called Lisle. Lisle offers her a potion of immortality. After seeing the price, Madaline declines but is soon persuaded otherwise after Lisle puts a drop into her pricked hand. Seduced by the unblemished state of her hand, she drinks the elixir. Lisle warns her that she must take care of her body and that after ten years she must retire from the public eye. To reduce suspicion from others. During this time, Helen seduces Ernest with vain flattery. She suggests that for him to escape Madaline and for them to be happy, they must kill her. Madaline arrives home, and a fight breaks out. Ernest snaps and begins strangling her, and pushes her down the stairs. Horrified at what he has done, yet satisfied with the plan, he calls Helen, who scolds him for his foolishness. In the background, her body can be seen jaggedly reassembling itself, and Ernest turns in horror. Ernest rushes her to the hospital and the doctor proclaims her dead. Ernest considers this a miracle and a sign he should rethink leaving her. Although, this could be a two-faced facade to maintain face. Ernest decides to "repair" her body at home, shoddily covering the pale hue of death with spray paint and leaving the insides to rot. Helen arrives, paranoid at the thought of a sprawled-out crime scene, demanding to see Madaline's body. Madaline overhears them plotting her burial. In a rage, she shoots Helen in the abdomen with a shotgun before she falls face down into a fountain of pooling blood. The three then learn that Helen has also taken the elixir of life, and bicker at each other in a brief feud, as a dazed Ernest takes it all in. In these tracks of chaos and self-destruction, they embrace and makeup as Ernest grows pensive and wary. Ernest gathers his things to leave but resigns to "fixing" their bodies before going. Madaline and Helen attempt to sedate Ernest so they can forcibly have him become immortal for the benefit of their maintenance, as they remark on their finicky, flayed spray paint. Ernest is brought to the mansion, and Lisle tries to tempt him with the prospect of immortality. He is tempted but this spell is broken by the threats of boredom or mutilation. He also feels a moral urge to stop the production of these potions and steals it, running out of the premises. He comes upon a roof and is caught from falling off of it. Madaline and Helen plead for him to take the potion so he won't die when he falls. But he feels that death is a better state than eternally tending to the wounds of the two women to no avail. He is caught by a swimming pool and escapes. Helen and Madaline become resigned to the fact that they will have to upkeep each other for eternity. Thirty-seven years later, the two attend Ernest's funeral, laughing and making fun of it. Helen accidentally rips a segment of her face and angrily berates Madaline for the acrylic she dropped earlier. This is a story of three people who lived an existence that you can't call living. All engrossed by the temporary state of youth and vitality, they chase that ideal at the demise of everything else. Helen for revenge, which consumes her for the rest of her life, Madaline in vanity, to the point where her ego blinds her from bettering her acting, Ernest, in lust, to where he will not heed the faulty character of the women around him. All devoured by the pitfalls of their fake, abusive relationships, that egg on the vain, superficial qualities of the people around them, whom they simultaneously despise and want to maintain power over. In a fight, Madaline and Helen seize each other and fall down the stairs, shattering into fragments like mannequins.