Editing Death Becomes Her (section)

==Reception==

''Death Becomes Her'' received mixed reviews from critics, who praised its special effects and lead performances, but found it lacking depth and substance.<ref name=afi/><ref>{{Cite news |last=Bentz |first=Adam |date=October 24, 2022 |title=Jessica Chastain Discussed A Death Becomes Her Remake With Anne Hathaway |url=https://screenrant.com/jessica-chastain-anne-hathaway-death-becomes-her-remake/ |access-date=October 7, 2024 |work=[[Screen Rant]]}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Friedman |first=Danielle |date=February 1, 2017 |title=Is Death Becomes Her the Anti-Aging Parable We Need? |url=https://www.thecut.com/2017/02/death-becomes-her-meryl-streep-anti-aging.html |access-date=October 7, 2024 |work=[[The Cut (New York)|The Cut]]}}</ref><ref name=Sragow>{{Cite magazine |last=Sragow |first=Michael |date=October 1, 2015 |title=Death Becomes Her |url=https://www.newyorker.com/goings-on-about-town/movies/death-becomes-her |access-date=2024-10-27 |magazine=The New Yorker |language=en-US}}</ref> Review aggregator [[Rotten Tomatoes]] gives the film an approval rating of 58% based on 59 reviews, with an average rating of 6/10. The site's critics consensus reads: "Hawn and Streep are as fabulous as ''Death Becomes Her''{{'}}s innovative special effects; Zemeckis' satire, on the other hand, is as hollow as the world it mocks."<ref>{{cite web|title=Death Becomes Her (1992)|url=https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/death_becomes_her/|website=Rotten Tomatoes|access-date=February 20, 2025|archive-date=March 19, 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240319050135/https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/death_becomes_her|url-status=live}}</ref> On [[Metacritic]], the film has a [[Weighted arithmetic mean|weighted average score]] of 56 out of 100 based on 24 critics, indicating "mixed or average" reviews.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Death Becomes Her Reviews |url=https://www.metacritic.com/movie/death-becomes-her |access-date=September 8, 2022 |website=Metacritic |publisher=[[CBS Interactive]] |archive-date=March 12, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230312145539/https://www.metacritic.com/movie/death-becomes-her |url-status=live }}</ref> Audiences polled by [[CinemaScore]] gave the film an average grade of "B" on an A+ to F scale.<ref name="CinemaScore">{{cite web |url=https://m.cinemascore.com/ |title=CinemaScore |work=cinemascore.com |access-date=October 17, 2017}}</ref>

The ''[[Chicago Tribune]]'''s [[Dave Kehr]] wrote, "Instantly grotesque, relentless misanthropic and spectacularly tasteless, 'Death Becomes Her' isn't a film designed to win the hearts of the mass moviegoing public. But it is diabolically inventive and very, very funny."<ref name=Kehr>{{Cite news |last=Kehr |first=Dave |date=July 31, 1992 |title='Death' Takes a Holiday |url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/1992/07/31/death-takes-a-holiday/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://archive.today/20241027042826/https://www.chicagotribune.com/1992/07/31/death-takes-a-holiday/ |archive-date=October 27, 2024 |access-date=October 27, 2024 |work=[[Chicago Tribune]]}}</ref><ref name=Thomson>{{Cite news |last=Thomson |first=Desson |date=July 31, 1992 |title='Death Becomes Her' |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/style/longterm/movies/videos/deathbecomesherpg13howe_a0aee9.htm |access-date=October 27, 2024 |newspaper=The Washington Post}}</ref> [[Todd McCarthy]] of ''[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]]'' said, "While the fountain of youth theme has often come up in films, it has never been given anything like this treatment before."<ref name=McCarthy>{{Cite web |last=McCarthy |first=Todd |date=1992-07-27 |title=Death Becomes Her |url=https://variety.com/1992/film/reviews/death-becomes-her-3-1200430256/ |access-date=2024-10-27 |website=Variety |language=en-US}}</ref> ''[[People (magazine)|People]]'' praised the film's "flashes of originality, brilliant special effects and terrific performances—Willis as a curdled Milquetoast and Hawn as a woman who is finally feeling her own power. Streep makes a fine untamed shrew, by turns shrill, whiny and cooing".<ref name="People">{{Cite magazine |date=August 10, 1992 |title=Picks and Pans Review: Death Becomes Her |url=https://people.com/archive/picks-and-pans-review-death-becomes-her-vol-38-no-6/ |access-date=2024-10-27 |magazine=[[People (magazine)|People]] |volume=38 |number=6 |language=en}}</ref> Willis was also singled out for his [[against type]] comedic performance.<ref name=THR>{{Cite web |last=Menell |first=Jeff |date=1992-07-31 |title='Death Becomes Her': THR's 1992 Review |url=https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/death-becomes-her-review-1992-movie-1128382/ |access-date=2024-10-27 |website=The Hollywood Reporter |language=en-US}}</ref><ref name="People" />

Negative reviews criticized the script and pacing, noting that its satire feels scattershot and that the plot is pushed aside for the special effects.<ref name=Maslin>{{Cite news |last=Maslin |first=Janet |date=July 31, 1992 |title=Review/Film; Squeezing the Humor Out of Death |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1992/07/31/movies/review-film-squeezing-the-humor-out-of-death.html |access-date=2024-10-27 |work=The New York Times}}</ref><ref name=Denby>{{Cite web |last=Denby |first=David |date=1992-08-10 |title=A Gruesome Death |url=https://www.vulture.com/article/death-becomes-her-review.html |access-date=2024-10-27 |website=[[New York (magazine)|New York]] |language=en}}</ref> [[Gene Siskel]] and [[Roger Ebert]] both gave ''Death Becomes Her'' a 'thumbs down', commenting that while the film has great special effects, it lacks any real substance or character depth.<ref name=AtMovies>{{cite episode|url=https://siskelebert.org/?p=12741|title=''Death Becomes Her'' review|date=August 8, 1992|series=[[At the Movies (1986 TV program)|Siskel & Ebert]]|season=6|number=44|access-date=May 22, 2023|archive-date=May 22, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230522082838/https://siskelebert.org/?p=12741|url-status=live}}</ref> ''People'' said "screenwriters David Koepp and Martin Donovan would have done well to keep their skewed, scabrous vision in sharper focus and to display satire that rises to the level of a scene in which Rossellini is throwing a party for her myriad clients".<ref name="People" />  [[Owen Gleiberman]] of ''[[Entertainment Weekly]]'' said, "The trouble with ''Death Becomes Her'' isn't that its comic vision is too dark but that it has no shadings, no acerbic glee. Zemeckis gives nastiness such a hard sell he forgets to take any delight in it."<ref name=EW>{{Cite web |last=Gleiberman |first=Owen |date=1992-08-14 |title=Death Becomes Her |url=https://ew.com/article/1992/08/14/death-becomes-her-2/ |access-date=2024-10-27 |website=EW.com |language=en}}</ref>

Rita Kempley of ''[[The Washington Post]]'' gave an overall positive review in which she praised the script's "offbeat lines and unexpected laughs", but noted there is still an "underlying high-and-mighty moral tone, which might have come straight from the pen of [[Nathaniel Hawthorne|Hawthorne]] -- a puritannical posture wholly deserving of Madeline's retort: 'Blah, blah, blah, blah.' Really, fellas, what's a little cucumber mask going to hurt?"<ref name=Kempley>{{Cite news |last=Kempley |first=Rita |date=July 25, 1992 |title='Death Becomes Her' |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/style/longterm/movies/videos/deathbecomesherpg13kempley_a0a2cd.htm |access-date=27 October 2024 |newspaper=The Washington Post}}</ref>

In ''[[Newsweek]]'', [[David Ansen]] wrote, "Oddly, the more fantastical and grotesque this comedy becomes, the more conventional it seems-and the less it has to say. Somewhere in the middle of the movie, the characters take a back seat to the pyrotechnics, reality is replaced by cliffhangers and Gothic claptrap, and the laughs start to dry up. Satire needs a social context, but the filmmakers have little to say about the culture that created these age-obsessed women. Still, even when 'Death Becomes Her' wanders off course, it remains worth rooting for."<ref name=Newsweek>{{Cite web |last=Ansen |first=David |date=1992-08-02 |title=Revenge Of The Living Dead |url=https://www.newsweek.com/revenge-living-dead-198252 |access-date=2024-10-27 |website=Newsweek |language=en}}</ref>

===Accolades===
{{Anchor|Awards and nominations}}
{| class="wikitable"
|- valign="bottom"
! Award
! Category
! Recipient
! Result
|-
| [[Academy Awards]]<ref name="ilm">{{Cite web|url=https://www.ilm.com/awards/death-becomes-her-awards/|title=Death Becomes Her Awards|website=Industrial Light & Magic|access-date=October 29, 2020|archive-date=November 2, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201102012122/https://www.ilm.com/awards/death-becomes-her-awards/|url-status=dead}}</ref>
| [[Academy Award for Best Visual Effects|Best Visual Effects]]
| [[Ken Ralston]], [[Doug Chiang]], [[Douglas Smythe]], and [[Tom Woodruff Jr.]]
| {{won}}
|-
| [[BAFTA Award]]<ref name="ilm" />
| [[BAFTA Award for Best Special Visual Effects|Best Visual Effects]]
| [[Michael Lantieri]], [[Ken Ralston]], Alec Gillis, Tom Woodruff Jr., [[Doug Chiang]], and Douglas Smythe
| {{won}}
|-
| [[Golden Globe Award]]<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.goldenglobes.com/film/death-becomes-her|title=Death Becomes Her|website=goldenglobes.com|access-date=October 29, 2020|archive-date=March 12, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230312145538/https://www.goldenglobes.com/film/death-becomes-her|url-status=live}}</ref>
| [[Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy|Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy]] 
| [[Meryl Streep]]
| {{nom}}
|-
| rowspan="9"| [[19th Saturn Awards|Saturn Awards]]<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.saturnawards.org/past.html |title=Past Saturn Awards |publisher=[[Saturn Awards]] |access-date=May 7, 2008 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080914184217/http://www.saturnawards.org/past.html |archive-date=September 14, 2008 |df=mdy}}</ref>
| [[Saturn Award for Best Fantasy Film|Best Fantasy Film]]
|
| {{nom}}
|-
| [[Saturn Award for Best Actor|Best Actor]]
| [[Bruce Willis]]
| {{nom}}
|-
| [[Saturn Award for Best Actress|Best Actress]]
| Meryl Streep
| {{nom}}
|-
| [[Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress|Best Supporting Actress]]
| [[Isabella Rossellini]]
| {{won}}
|-
| [[Saturn Award for Best Director|Best Director]]
| [[Robert Zemeckis]]
| {{nom}}
|-
| [[Saturn Award for Best Writing|Best Writing]]
| [[Martin Donovan (screenwriter)|Martin Donovan]] & [[David Koepp]]
| {{nom}}
|-
| [[Saturn Award for Best Music|Best Music]]
| [[Alan Silvestri]]
| {{nom}}
|-
| [[Saturn Award for Best Make-up|Best Make-up]]
| [[Dick Smith (make-up artist)|Dick Smith]]. & [[Kevin Haney]]
| {{nom}}
|-
| [[Saturn Award for Best Special Effects|Best Special Effects]]
| Ken Ralston, Doug Chiang, Douglas Smythe, and Tom Woodruff Jr.
| {{won}}
|}

===Legacy===
''Death Becomes Her'' has acquired a significant cult following, especially in the [[LGBT]] community.<ref name="Julia Pugachevsky">{{cite news |author=Pugachevsky |first=Julia |date=June 21, 2013 |title="Death Becomes Her" Is Ruling Our Lives: NewNowNext Style |work=newnownext.com |url=http://www.newnownext.com/newnownext-style-death-becomes-her-is-ruling-our-lives-and-our-wardrobes/06/2013/ |access-date=June 10, 2018 |archive-date=June 12, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180612140208/http://www.newnownext.com/newnownext-style-death-becomes-her-is-ruling-our-lives-and-our-wardrobes/06/2013/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Jackson |first=Matthew |date=2023-03-21 |title=Remembering the unabashed zaniness of 'Death Becomes Her,' now streaming on Peacock |url=https://www.syfy.com/syfy-wire/remembering-the-unabashed-zaniness-of-death-becomes-her |access-date=2023-05-22 |website=SYFY Official Site |language=en-US |archive-date=May 22, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230522082837/https://www.syfy.com/syfy-wire/remembering-the-unabashed-zaniness-of-death-becomes-her |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="Paste">{{cite news |last1=Panther |first1=B. |title=The Queer Immortality of ''Death Becomes Her'' |url=https://www.pastemagazine.com/movies/meryl-streep/death-becomes-her-queer-immortality |access-date=27 October 2024 |work=[[Paste Magazine]] |date=August 1, 2022}}</ref> In [[RogerEbert.com]], Jessica Ritchey wrote, "Time has been kind to 'Death Becomes Her', and the mordantly funny eye it turns to Hollywood pretense and our cultural inability to forgive women for aging. With the virtual extinction of Hollywood's interest in women over thirty, it's a real pleasure to see a film centered on and held down by two actresses as strong as Streep and Hawn."<ref>{{Cite web |last=Ritchey |first=Jessica |date=May 3, 2016 |title=Chuck Jones Meets "Sunset Boulevard": On Robert Zemeckis' "Death Becomes Her" |url=https://www.rogerebert.com/streaming/chuck-jones-meets-sunset-boulevard-on-robert-zemeckis-death-becomes-her |access-date=May 22, 2023 |website=[[RogerEbert.com]] |archive-date=May 22, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230522082837/https://www.rogerebert.com/streaming/chuck-jones-meets-sunset-boulevard-on-robert-zemeckis-death-becomes-her |url-status=live }}</ref> An article in ''[[Vanity Fair (magazine)|Vanity Fair]]'' titled "The Gloriously Queer Afterlife of 'Death Becomes Her'" called the film a "gay cult classic" and "a touchstone of the queer community".<ref name="Kristy Puchko">{{cite magazine |author=Puchko |first=Kristy |date=August 3, 2017 |title=The Glorious Queer Afterlife of 'Death Becomes Her' |url=https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2017/08/death-becomes-her-25th-anniversary-meryl-streep-goldie-hawn-gay-classic |magazine=[[Vanity Fair (magazine)|Vanity Fair]] |access-date=June 10, 2018 |archive-date=September 24, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200924075951/https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2017/08/death-becomes-her-25th-anniversary-meryl-streep-goldie-hawn-gay-classic |url-status=live }}</ref> The movie is screened in bars during [[LGBT Pride Month|Pride Month]], while the characters of Madeline and Helen are favorites of drag performers. In this vein, the movie inspired a ''Death Becomes Her''-themed runway show on [[RuPaul's Drag Race (season 7)|season 7]] of ''[[RuPaul's Drag Race]]''.<ref name="Julia Pugachevsky"/> The winner of season 5, [[Jinkx Monsoon]], has cited the movie as an inspiration to become a drag queen. Jinkx has participated in ''Death Becomes Her''-themed photoshoots,<ref>{{cite news |author=Rudolph |first=Christopher |date=May 17, 2013 |title=Jinkx Monsoon and Ivy Winters Star in Ricky Middlesworth's 'Death Becomes Her' (PHOTOS) |work=[[HuffPost]] |url=https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/17/death-becomes-jinkx_n_3287753.html |access-date=June 10, 2018 |archive-date=October 17, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161017122451/http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/17/death-becomes-jinkx_n_3287753.html |url-status=live }}</ref> and in 2018 they played Madeline in a drag stage show parody called "Drag Becomes Her" alongside [[RuPaul's Drag Race (season 6)|season 6]] contestant [[BenDeLaCreme]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Rotter |first=Joshua |date=2020-03-10 |title=Can drag queens beat death? Find out in 'Drag Becomes Her' |url=https://48hills.org/2020/03/can-drag-queens-beat-death-find-out-in-drag-becomes-her/ |access-date=2023-05-22 |website=48 hills |language=en-US |archive-date=May 22, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230522082838/https://48hills.org/2020/03/can-drag-queens-beat-death-find-out-in-drag-becomes-her/ |url-status=live }}</ref> Tom Campbell, an executive producer of ''RuPaul's Drag Race'', reflected on the appeal of the movie to gay audiences:{{cquote|They're fighting for beauty. They're against the system. They're also villains, but we understand their complexity. We root for the undead divas because they're trying to win a game that's rigged against them, and—to borrow an apocryphal quote from [[Ginger Rogers]]—they sort of have to do it 'backwards and in high heels.'<ref name="Kristy Puchko"/>
}}In May 2024, ''RuPaul's Drag Race's'' [[Trinity the Tuck]] and [[Jujubee (drag queen)|Jujubee]] released their single [[Sinematic (Trinity the Tuck album)|"'Til Death Becomes Us"]] alongside a music video, serving as an homage to the original film.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2024-04-25 |title=Trinity the Tuck and Jujubee Collaborate for a Sinful New Single, "Til Death Becomes Us" |url=https://socialitelife.com/trinity-the-tuck-and-jujubee-collaborate-for-a-sinful-new-single-til-death-becomes-us/ |access-date=2024-06-01 |website=Socialite Life |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Trinity the Tuck is your sinful pop goddess & her new EP is coming just in time for Pride |url=https://www.pride.com/gay-music/trinity-the-tuck-sinematic |access-date=2024-06-01 |website=www.pride.com |date=April 30, 2024 |language=en}}</ref>

Rotten Tomatoes lists the film on its 100 Best Zombie Movies, Ranked by Tomatometer.<ref>{{Cite web |title=100 Best Zombie Movies, Ranked by Tomatometer |url=https://editorial.rottentomatoes.com/guide/essential-zombie-movies/ |access-date=2025-05-04 |website=[[Rotten Tomatoes]] |language=en-US}}</ref>