Till Death (2021)

TIL DEATH is the new Meghan Fox suspenser screening on Amazon Prime. A cross between “Gerald’s Game” and “Panic Room”, Fox is a woman whose scheming husband takes her to an isolated cabin to celebrate their anniversary…then kills himself, leaving her chained to the corpse. Of course there are escalating complications, and it gets pretty tense and nasty. Overall, a winner. Thumbs up!

SAMBO ALERT.

Yep, this is amovie I was worried about. See, her husband knew she was cheating, and arranges for her boyfriend to show up at the house…just in time to die. Did I mention said boyfriend was black?

Now, it was the disgusting realization, three minutes into the movie, that he was going to die protecting her that was part of the ugliness. The other is that they never really touched. Oh, they were in his apartment sitting on his bed TALKING about it, but only after he dies does she cradle his hand fondly (sob sob).

I mean, the trope of the guy dying to save his love generally includes the fact they’ve been boinking, and that he therefore might be dying to protect his own offspring. Makes genetic sense. But by avoiding any sign of affection, I’m afraid I can’t even give them that. It was predictable, nasty, unnecessary. Not “lazy” but indicative of unconscious biases: I would actually put it into a sub-category: “touch a white woman and die.”

And yes, I’ll be spoiling these movies from now on. Sorry if that tweaks you, but black people and their allies have more right to be warned than anyone upset has to enjoy their secret genocidal fantasy. If this bothers you, go away.