Look, I know this might seem like a bit of a weird choice.
Directed by Robert Zemeckis, 1992’s Death Becomes Her might seem like a bit of an odd choice for the Season of the Dead – but, when you consider the point that zombie movies were at with releases like The Return of the Living Dead, it makes a bit more sense. While there were some decent straight-up zombie movies released in the 1990s (Frankenhooker and Braindead spring immediately to mind), in the mainstream, the zombie was still very much in its goofy era.
Death Becomes Her is the kind of film that makes total sense as part of Robert Zemeckis’ back catalogue, especially at this point in his career – this movie came on the heels of Back to the Future and Who Framed Roger Rabbit, two movies that had earned critical and commercial success blending aspects of genre fiction with more mainstream, crowd-pleasing sensibilities In terms of horror specifically, he had become the executive producer of (as well as directing a handful of episodes for) Tales from the Crypt, a series which mirrored much of the black comedy that characterised his movies through a spookier lens. In 1990, Zemeckis remarked that he was “too restless to do anything that’s not zany”, and Death Becomes Her feels very much like an extension of that approach – darkly humorous and delightfully twisted, playing in the sandbox of zombie and gothic horror without getting weighed down by either.
The movie follows actress Madeline Ashton (Meryl Streep), who, as she passes her prime, sees her career start to wither on the vine; when she discovers that one-time rival Helen (Goldie Hawn) seems to have access to a certain rejuvenation treatment that has her looking younger than ever. Of course, it doesn’t take long for the film to reveal the truth: Helen (and soon Madeline) are actually the walking dead. And that their problems go far beyond a bit of tasteful surgical enhancement.
Death Becomes Her, despite a lukewarm critical reception upon its release, has become a cult classic in the three decades or so since it came out – and with good reason. The movie is dripping with personality and wit, as much a skewering of Hollywood beauty standards and the culture around ageing as it is a ridiculous revenge story revolving around Helen’s remorseless drive to take down her Madeline. From a filmmaking perspective, the special effects are the big selling point here, with some truly spectacular CGI and make-up to bring Madeline and Helen to undead life; the sequence where Goldie Hawn is strolling around with a huge hole in her abdomen is downright brilliant, even by today’s standards. The very literal way that Helen and Madeline paper over the cracks of their corpse-bodies, the make-up peeling off their rotting flesh and spray-painted features, along with the various catastrophic injuries they do each other over the course of the film ride that line between horror and comedy with a fantastically twisted vibe.
In terms of the zombie movie, though, Death Becomes Her does feel beholden to what’s come before – even though it’s a very different movie than the zombie films we’ve covered thus far in the series. The mystical rather than viral transmission of the living dead – courtesy of Isabella Rosselini as the ambiguously European Lisle von Rhuman, who, and I say this with the utmost respect, might be the most gorgeous person ever to appear on-screen in anything ever – feels more like a nod to classic zombie lore of the 1930s and 40s, while the acerbic tone embraces the more parodic approach of the 80s. It’s something like a mix of I Walked with a Zombie and The Return of the Living Dead, a marriage of comedy and romance and just a little cultural parody.
But perhaps most importantly, Death Becomes Her was likely the first huge domestic box office hit to focus on the living dead. With an all-star cast, a director fresh off an Academy Award-winning insta-classic, and an opening weekend that put it at the top of the charts, it proved, once and for all, that the living dead had more than a place in cinema – that they could pull in some serious money, too, even if they’re handled with a lighter and more comedic touch than what came before.
Which leads us in to the 2000s, where zombie cinema saw a bit of a revival with stuff like Sean of the Dead, 28 Days Later, and the focus of our next article, [REC]. Join us later this week for a dive into the Spanish found footage classic, and, till then, if you enjoyed this article and want to see more stuff like it, check out the rest of the Season of the Dead series here. Please consider supporting us on Ko-Fi. You can check out more of my work on my personal blog, The Cutprice Guignol!
By Lou MacGregor
(header image via Nerdist)
