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6.9/10
Senior Film Conservator
A definitive 6.9/10 rating for a film that redefined the boundaries of cult cinema. Death Takes a Holiday remains a cornerstone of transgressive art.
Honestly, only if you like movies that feel like a stage play where everyone is constantly posing. It’s for the folks who enjoy that old-timey, dramatic 1930s vibe where every line is delivered like it’s being carved into stone.
If you need fast pacing or characters who act like real human beings, you’re going to hate this. It’s slow. Like, watching paint dry in a tuxedo kind of slow.
Fredric March is out here doing the most. He plays Death, but he plays him like he’s just discovered what a smile is and is trying to force it onto his face. It’s bizarre. At one point, he just stares at a bowl of fruit like it’s a portal to another dimension.
The whole premise is that he wants to understand why people are so afraid of him. So he hangs out at a big house, wearing a velvet suit, being brooding and mysterious. It feels less like a metaphysical journey and more like a guy trying to get a date at a high-society mixer.
It’s not as heavy as you’d think. It’s actually kind of funny in how serious it takes itself. It reminds me a bit of the stuffy energy in When Knighthood Was in Flower, where the sets look expensive but the people are just walking around in circles.
There’s this one scene where he’s trying to explain his job to a girl. He sounds like a teenager trying to explain his first breakup. Deeply uncomfortable, but I couldn't look away.
The movie doesn't really have an arc so much as it just stops. It just decides that Death has learned his lesson and that’s that. No big climax. Just a fade-out while someone looks concerned in a doorway.
It’s a strange little artifact. Don't go in expecting some deep philosophical breakdown of mortality. It’s just a weird, shiny, velvet-covered ghost story about a guy who really needs a hobby.
