Death Becomes Her

Luke says:

I haven’t seen this movie since I was a teenager and I’m really curious to revisit it for Feast 11! It was one of the few tapes my mom owned and with hindsight It makes sense that she really loved it too. Of the dozen or so tapes she had, A League of Their Own (1992), Fried Green Tomatoes (1991), Stevie Nicks: Live at Red Rocks (1987), The Freddie Mercury Tribute: Concert for AIDS Awareness (1992) and of course Death Becomes Her (1992). I watched all of these tapes a bunch of times. She was definitely seeking out movies that focused on women dealing with the patriarchy and gay issues. I think it is also important to note that for the late 80’s and most of the 90’s my mom was in a lesbian relationship. Anyway, I’m giving all this context because I think Death Becomes Her is thematically similar to those other movies.

The movie was made during the cosmetic surgery boom and is a direct commentary on the cult of youth. It has to do with the pressure and unrealistic expectations put on women, especially celebrity women. What makes this movie super entertaining is taking this conflict to its logical extreme. This plays out like sketch comedy sometimes does; Start with a premise and take it as far as it can go to get laughs.

Robert Zemekis directed this movie around the same time he was also working on HBO’s Tales From The Crypt series. I think you can easily read Death Becomes Her as a Tales From The Crypt movie. A morality tale shown through the lens of Horror Comedy.

There are huge performances here from Meryl Streep, Goldie Hawn, Bruce Willis and Isabelle Rossalini, with Meryl and Bruce’s characters being way off brand.