To Your Last Death review: The horror gets really animated in this indie animation with a top pedigree voice cast.
To Your Last Death is one of the more distinctive films screening at this year’s Frightfest, for two reasons. Firstly, it’s the only animation screening at the festival. Secondly, it features one of the starriest casts with Ray Wise, Bill Moseley, Morena Baccarin and none other than William Shatner lending their vocals to the piece. It’s an impressive range of people considering the film is a small indie feature.
The film itself is a tale of greed, mistrust, and murder within the Dekalb family, all narrated by the velvet vocal chords of Shatner. Cyrus Dekalb is a titan of industry who has become estranged from his family. Knowing he needs to announce a successor, he summons his four children to his multi-story complex. That’s not all Cyrus has planned, however, as he sets a murderous plan into action. One of his children, Miriam (Dani Lenon) escapes and encounters a strange woman (Morena Baccarin) who offers to send Miriam back in time to try and change the outcome. Can Miriam convince her estranged siblings of their father’s nefarious plans, or will history repeat itself?
Don’t let the film being an animation fool you, there is plenty of gore on display. The ‘traps’ that Cyrus has laid out for his offspring are just as deviously nasty as anything that John Kramer cooked up in the Saw franchise. One trap in particular that requires one character to cut themselves and bleed a certain amount of blood, is almost straight out of the Kramer playbook.
Now, I’m not the most versed in the world of animation, anime, manga, etc., but to my layman’s eye, the film looks gorgeous. The style is unlike anything I have personally seen, and whilst a little jarring initially, you soon get used to it. It’s difficult to describe, but it looks almost like the characters are pieces of cardboard being animated in front of a flat background. To Your Last Death has two distinct colour palettes that indicate which location the action is happening in. The main story with Miriam and her siblings is full of vibrant colours with an emphasis on blues, reds, and greens. Then there’s a side story (which we won’t go into details about) that is stark black and white.
Despite the lush animation and entertaining traps, the plot itself isn’t that inspired. Some elements like the do-ove are fresh, but the bulk of the story is your typical run, hide, fight-back. There’s also a lot of repetition as Miriam works her way through each sibling, trying to save them and either being successful or not. In any film this can become tiresome, but given the film is animated, it makes it all the more easy to get distracted by all the pretty colours.
Whilst a stand alone film, Baccarin’s character easily opens up possibilities for more To Your Last Death movies. Don’t be getting up to leave when the credits start, not only is it disrespectful to those that made the film, you’ll also miss the mid and post credit sequences that reinforce this idea.
A stunningly executed animation that, whilst let down a little by an overly familiar plot, still offers plenty to enjoy.
To Your Last Death was reviewed at Arrow Video Frightfest 2019.
