A Necessary Death

Listed as a documentary on Netflix. It is a work of fiction, so not at all a documentary. Blurring facts with fiction should be discouraged not glorified, especially now when everything is touted as fake. Films such as this should be clearly identified as mockumentaries. Acting is poor. If you watch, go in knowing it is a drama pretending to be a documentary.

Gilbert Toma (G.J. Echternkamp) is a film student looking to make a documentary on a suicidal person. It's an indie with indie budget. So we have to account for that. Even with that in mind, this is still a slow moving film. The only hope is to pretend that this is real. At least that would allow for some tension to seep thru.

But it's obvious that it's not. I've seen enough of these faux-docs. It rambles on in that kind of videotape footages. The people slowly and methodically do their documentary and talk about their documentary. It's not that compelling. The last 30 minutes has some interesting developments. I don't recommend this movie, but if you watch it, you might as well stay until the end.

Saw this movie in Calagary and it just made me mad that you can have all the talent in the world but if you have no money it's almost impossible to get your work seen. Take "A Necessary Death" for example. These guys have worked on this movie for three years (probably for very little or no money) and have created something that they can confidently show to anyone, while other movies are made for millions and are an embarrassment! I believe they are showing it at AFI next month so I am hoping something happens for them as I will definitely be taking my friends to see it if it ever gets released. These are the type of movies that inspire young film makers to try harder because it proves that if you have what it takes you can create wonderful work with very little resources. And to think I wasn't even meant to see this movie during the festival. I just liked the name!!!

So when it comes to Daniel Stamm films, the first I saw was the Last Exorcism. I undervalued this film because I saw it in theaters (The only of Stamm's films to go to theaters) and because it was during the whole string of horribly made unoriginal "exorcism" movies. After watching again, it actually isn't that bad. His newest film "13 sins" is based off a foreign film but is by far his BEST and way better than the Last Exorcism and A Necessary Death.

Anyways, this review is about A Necessary Death (obviously). I definitely suggest a watch, because it is engrossing and gives an interesting fake documentary take on suicide in the genre of "horror." I said I would not include spoilers in this review, but the only place the movie fails is within the fact that a little over halfway through, you know EXACTLY how the film will end and the plot-twist/"oh wow" moment will unfold. Literally about 45 or 50 minutes into the movie, I said to myself, "Oh, well *this* (to avoid spoilers) will happen and the credits will roll." Sure enough, that it was exactly what happened. Overall an above average movie. Definitely worth a watch! Unfortunately, it is just PREDICTABLE. Like I said, give his newest film "13 sins" a chance and it is definitely his best piece to date.

I don't want to say much because I really want people to watch it for themselves first. I just have to say I thought this was a fantastic piece of work and whilst a lot of people may say that this is bad taste, I think it's very honest and I respect that.

I'm not easily stunned or speechless but this film is an exception and addresses some very important topics that really need to be discussed more openly in this world. Maybe then, it would be understood much more. I would advise anyone wanting to watch this to help them deal with the topic surrounding this film, that it may not perhaps be ideal for some but may be for others. Everyone comes away with a different opinion .