To Your Last Death

Animation in the US has been sadly limited by the gatekeepers. When I created Strange Frame, the gatekeepers said that no one would watch an animated sci-fi adventure for adults, even with a half million views then still are a broken record. The gatekeepers say that adult animation has to be comedy or it won't work. Well, To Your Last Death proves for horror that isn't true. This movie has a style similar to Archer if that show had a bigger budget, but that's where the comparison ends. TYLD drips with the blood of a thriller with plenty of gore. The voice work is amazeballs and the soundtrack is a fantastically ominous heartbeat the keeps the pressure on. The characters have just the right amount of depth and the film touches upon current themes of the environment, capitalism, psychology, and social norms without being at all preachy.

The Gamemaster of TYLD has reset the rules for animation.

If you're a horror fan, this is a not to miss film.

Unless your the DeKalb family...Or under the age of gore watching glory. It is reminiscent of the stylized dysfunctional characters in Archer as well - but dialed to blood-soaked-insanity.

Very rarely are there full horror movies produced in this format. If you can't at least appreciate that then go back to Disney.

There is more to the depth then surface dwellers suspect. I find if you look at who is playing at the table for the Gamemasters trans-dimension DnD you might find a clue.

Definitely not any of the award-hype it promised. If you've seen any of the motion comics that came on the web 15 years ago, this is the same thing, but in a 90-minute movie form instead of broken down into 5-10 minute TV shorts, which was the old format. The story itself is reminiscent of a low-grade '80s B-movie, in that it's a bit out there and convoluted, which is why I would say this is not a modern B-movie. Basically, it's a whacky '80s time-travel B-movie for 12-yr-olds with elements of Saw, so, the two genres don't really work together. The writer should have picked one or the other and stuck with it. Like, if the writer would have cut out the Robocop or Tron, evil corporation, sophomoric cheese, and stuck with the evil-rich-dad thing, kept it standard horror, and been more inventive than ripping Saw, maybe Blumhouse or someone would have ponied up a few mill to produce the script. And with that version of the script tightened, and live-action, maybe I would have enjoyed it well enough.

I was at least willing to give the story a shot, since after the first painful 10 minutes, it started to peak my interest. It's just very hard to get into the After Effects puppet animation, especially when you know it's going to be for 90 minutes, rather than what it's typically used for, which is small doses. Whatever budget they had would have been better spent on a live-action short. I get the sense the writer or director was trying to show what they could do with a budget. The storyboard sequencing, expressed in comic book form was pretty good. I could picture it, and the music was good enough. The voice acting was good or bad, depending on the actor. The writing was mediocre...but, like I said, if some of the other elements are there, I can be perfectly entertained by a B-movie, since my expectations are generally low. So, a silly, mediocre script can work, just not with stiff, puppet animation.

To make this work, the story either needed to be excellent, or the animation had to be a lot better, or good live-action. As a whole, it didn't work for a full movie. I do appreciate the effort. I am a fan of animation, comics, and B-movies, it just didn't work for me. I would say for the director to keep at it, just maybe work harder at the basics before going the full movie route.

It's just plain bad, not worth the time it requires you to watch it.

Wow, where do I even begin with this one? Here's what you need to know.

1) The script is freaking GREAT. These writers deliver. This script is SO good. There are so many twists, and all of them I bought because of the depth of character. All the characters in this movie feel dimensional and realistic. They all are complex and have real-world trouble and moral ambiguity. I felt more for these 2D people than I have for a lot of live action horror movies lately. Kudos to the writers big time.

2) The voice talent is through the roof. From the Shat's opening monlogue, to the gorgeous Inara from Firefly as the evil mystery woman, the performances are amazing. Special mention to Ray Wise whom you may remember as Leland Palmer from Twin Peaks as the sadistic family patriarch.

3) The pacing is relentless (in a good way.) I was actually breathless by the end of this movie. My heart was beating fast. It was a ride.

4) The themes. The movie actually has something to say. There's a lot going on here and the movie doesn't shy away from making a few political points at the expense of the monied class. In that way this movie reminded me a lot of Parasite, except I enjoyed this one way more. Another theme has to do with whether or not we are all just pawns of a bunch of degenerate gods. Seriously. Trust me on this, it's awesome.

5) the animation. OK so I'm split on this. On the one hand it reminds me of Metalocalyspe meets Scooby Doo And it works for the story being told. I was never pulled out of the story because the art or animation wasn't cutting it. That said, this is a film that is clearly indie geek supreme to the max and you just know every dollar is up on the screen so no this is not Pixar, so don't expect that. This is a obviously a bunch of geeks who wanted to make the most insane movie they could, and they brought it with the $ they had.

6) Make sure you watch to the very end.

Give this one a chance you will be glad you did. I am still thinking about it two days later!