Till Death is a surprisingly good final act of an unfortunately overly long movie. But that final act – a good 30 minute conclusion – is so very good. I think they could have trimmed a good twenty minutes from the first hour but were probably beholden to that damn minimum 90 minute expectation films seem to have.

The film stars Megan Fox as a woman in a loveless marriage, controlled by her jerk of a husband. They go off to the country for the weekend and before you can “Didn’t I see this in Gerald’s Game?” she finds herself handcuffed to his corpse.

So, yes, if this sounds like Gerald’s Game, just know that she’s far more mobile (since she’s not handcuffed to the bed) and the film is more focused on her survival than her memories (or delusions). Her character is very proactive… even if it does lead to questions about why she doesn’t try this or that to get our of her circumstance.

But there’s only so much corpse dragging you can do before the movie runtime starts to stretch. And I was getting ready to pan this flick despite its good performance from Fox… until the final act kicks in and we get a more traditional thriller. And those thriller beats are very good, very tense, very suspenseful, and kind of awesome. Fox goes into fight mode and it’s enough to save the movie.

Despite the stretched out second act, this is still probably worth a watch if you want a good old fashioned thriller with a very active and aggressive female lead. Nice to see Fox in technically a victim role but not playing the victim.

Score: 82