Till Death

After a shaky start, this taut, vicious horror/thriller crackles to life with a dark sense of logic, a harrowing depiction of mental and emotional abuse, and a woman's boundless strength. While Till Death could have been a fairly routine home invasion or torture device movie, it elevates itself into fresh territory with its fierce conviction. A generic opening drone shot over a city, followed by an awkward hotel room tryst/breakup scene doesn't look promising. But soon after, Fox effectively conveys the lost despair of her marriage, carrying herself with a frosty bitterness, as well as a sense of being resolved to her fate. She moves slowly but with poise, going through the motions expertly.

After the trap is sprung, a weight is lifted, and a fire comes back into her. While Emma fights to save herself, there's also a palpable pleasure in the way she drags her husband's handcuffed body from room to room, with no effort to protect it from bumps or damage. As in Gerald's Game, the thriller aspects here line up neatly, and even though Mark's awful plan seems insane to the extreme, Till Death treats it with care and carries it out to its most logical point; it ultimately makes more sense than any Saw-related deathtraps. The feature directing debut of S.K. Dale, the movie has viewers not only rooting for Emma to survive but also convinces us that she has the stuff to pull it off.