History Film / DeathBecomesHer

** Two are delivered towards the end. The first lesson: At the end, the priest giving the eulogy remarks that nobody knew who Ernest Menville was before he turned 50. He became famous, achieved success, developed new hobbies and passions, made new close friends, found true love and started a family ''after'' 50. This drives home a point that you're never too old to truly start living. The second lesson: Ernest may have passed on, [[ImmortalityThroughMemory but he also found "eternal life" by carrying on a legacy through his children, grandchildren and through the memories of the lives he touched and made better]]. ''That'' is the true way to live forever.

* BittersweetEnding: Ernest grows old and dies but he leads a very happy and fulfilling life with a loving wife and family, close friends, a thriving career, newfound fame and respect, many enjoyable passions and hobbies, numerous philanthropic achievements and he dies peacefully and with dignity, fondly remembered at his funeral by the many people whose lives he'd enriched and with a legacy that will live on long after him. Helen and Madeline meanwhile are still alive but stuck with each other in deformed, rotting bodies they can barely walk around in, forgotten by everyone, shut away from the world and left with only one another for eternity.

* BlownAcrossTheRoom: Madeline does this to Helen.

* CameBackWrong: InhumanHuman. Technically, Helen and Madeline die, as they are clinically dead (no pulse, cold temperature) after being shot with a shotgun and pushed down the stairs, respectively. They are also subjected to decay now that they have been killed.

* DiamondsInTheBuff: Lisle's enormous chest-covering necklace.

* FateWorseThanDeath: A major theme of the film, with the two ladies finding themselves trapped in immortal rotting bodies thanks to their toxic personalities. Ernest realizes that becoming immortal to spend eternity alongside them would be his own fate worse than death, and indeed, chooses death in favour of it. He survives to live a happy life free of them, though only as a result of rejecting them.

* FingerPokeOfDoom: [[WesternAnimation/TinyToonAdventures Maddy go down the hollllle.]] More like Maddy go down the ''long flight of stairs''.

* HollywoodMidLifeCrisis: All three main characters suffer from this. Ernest learns to cope and appreciate what he's got at the end, and starts his life anew at 50, ending up ''much'' happier and more accomplished than before as a result. Meanwhile, Helen and Madeline are stuck in theirs forever due to being trapped in immortal but decaying bodies and retaining their vitriolic relationship.

* IdiotBall: Helen. She manages to go as far as getting engaged to Ernest without Madeline finding out, so what does she do at victory laps? Introduce Ernest to Madeline, knowing full well that Mad will do anything to steal Ernest from her. She justifies this by saying that she needs him to pass the Madeline test (to see if her man is capable of resisting Mad), but wouldn't it have been better to not risk it at all and just marry Ernest first, thus making him completely incapable of leaving her without financial ruin even if he becomes smitten with Mad?

* {{Immortality}}: Helen and Madeline achieve actual immortality. Ernest achieves a more Aesop-ish form of immortality by the film's end by being remembered after death for his accomplishments in life.

* ImmunityDisability: The two women gain immortality ''just'' before one suffers a broken neck and the other has a hole blown through her stomach. They're immortal, sure, but from then on, their bodies are falling to pieces, literally. The very end of the movie has their bodies breaking into bits after rolling down the stairs and their heads snapping off.

** This happens to Ernest as well, though in the [[ThrowTheDogABone opposite way]]. With the tolls of his alcoholism behind him and his skill as a surgeon restored (both implied to be the effect of the small dose of immortality serum he was given), he runs away and ends up an accomplished philanthropist dedicated to fixing the mistakes of his own youth, helping others and starting a family... all after the age of 50.

* MsFanservice: Creator/IsabellaRossellini as Lisle von Rhoman. Holy crap, ''that dress''.[[note]] Rossellini’s body double during her nude scene, Creator/CatherineBell, also qualifies.[[/note]]

* MutilationConga: Oh ''boy''.
* NeckSnap: An understandable result of being pushed down a long flight of marble stairs. It's not ''technically'' lethal, however, because the victim has consumed an immortality potion.

* PullTheTriggerProvocation: During a tense confrontation at the top of the stairs with a rejuvenated Madeline, Ernest snaps when she insults him and nearly strangles her, before leaving her tottering on the top step. She begs Ernest to pull her up and he begins to... Until she shouts "Hurry up, you wimp!" Ernest responds by poking her shoulder and sending Madeline down the marble stairs in a bone-shattering tumble.

* TrueBeautyIsOnTheInside: Ernest's relationship with both Madeline and Helen is a study in the consequences of only liking somebody for their looks. He broke up with one woman to marry the other because she were prettier. But many years later, Madeline's looks have faded, and he's left with nothing but a shrew who has [[AwfulWeddedLife ruined his life]]. And it doesn't help that the two women's rivalry makes them tiresome in his eyes. [[spoiler: Towards the climax, he's [[CharacterDevelopment come to a place]] where he recognizes that the potion wouldn't really make him happy and simply damn him to eternity with Madeline and Helen. In the end, after his death, his eulogy implies that he developed many redeeming qualities long after his youth and looks faded.]]

** Physical beauty doesn't last forever. Don't define or yourself solely on it, or you could make some very stupid and risky decisions to try and keep it. Conversely, don't get together with a person just because of their good looks; not only with those fade but a marriage based solely on them with be hollow and loveless, and said attractiveness could hide some very unpleasant character flaws.

** Take responsibility for your actions, and don't let others ride roughshod over you just for an easier life. Ernest is initially just as bad as Madeline and Helen due to his weak will and wallowing in his own misery, but when he realises what they've become he takes the initiative and decides to leave and quit drinking, and is able to build a new and far better life.

* {{Deconstruction}}: The film obviously focuses on the flaws of 'immortality' when you're clinically dead...but immortality that goes to plan isn't that great either; all Lisle's clients have to fake their deaths and go into hiding ten years after taking the potion, and Ernest points out that there's very little recourse if you get bored, lonely or just tired of watching everyone around you grow old and die. Plus you have to be immensely careful of your health or any physical accidents...because you ''will'' 'survive'.

* AmusingInjuries: This film has the most disturbing catalogue of such injuries on this side of a Creator/TexAvery cartoon.

--->'''Helen Sharp:''' She was a homewrecker. She was a man-eater. And she was a ''[[BadBadActing bad actress]]''.
** This is doubly hilarious when you watch the film and find out that ''Creator/MerylStreep'' --popularly cited as one of the world's finest actresses-- [[IronyAsSheIsCast plays Madeline Ashton]][[invoked]].
** [[ITakeOffenseToThatLastOne It's also the only insult that really pisses Madeline off.]]

** Two are delivered towards the end. The first lesson: At the end, the priest giving the eulogy remarks that nobody knew who Ernest Menville was before he turned 50. He became famous, achieved success, developed new hobbies and passions, made new close friends, found true love and started a family ''after'' 50. This drives home a point that you're never too old to truly start living. The second lesson: Ernest may have passed on, but he also found "eternal life" by carrying on a legacy through his children, grandchildren and through the memories of the lives he touched and made better. ''That'' is the true way to live forever.

* AnAesop:
** Two are delivered towards the end. The first lesson: At the end, the priest giving the eulogy remarks that nobody knew who Ernest Menville was before he turned 50. He became famous, achieved success, developed new hobbies and passions, made new close friends, found true love and started a family ''after'' 50. This drives home a point that you're never too old to truly start living. The second lesson: Ernest may have passed on, but he also found "eternal life" by carrying on a legacy through his children, grandchildren and through the memories of the lives he touched and made better. ''That'' is the true way to live forever.
** Take responsibility for your actions, and don't let others ride roughshod over you just for an easier life. Ernest is initially just as bad as Madeline and Helen due to his weak will and wallowing in his own misery, but when he realises what they've become he takes the initiative and decides to leave and quit drinking, and is able to build a new and far better life.

* CreatorInJoke: Helen says she drank the potion on October 26th 1985. This is the date that Marty [=McFly=] travelled back in time to 1955 in ''Film/BackToTheFuture'', which was of course directed by Robert Zemeckis.

** Helen claimed she took the potion on October 26th, 1985 -- a date in which [[TimeTravel another extraordinary event]] occurred in [[Film/BackToTheFuture another Robert Zemeckis film]].

Imagine, for a moment, that one drink of a simple elixir could make you immortal. You would never need to worry about aging or dying; the elixir would make you young and beautiful forever, which would put you in [[BeethovenWasAnAlienSpy some very good company]]. This only has one catch: After ten years, you must "disappear" to [[TheMasquerade make sure no one figures out you've become immortal]]. It's a no-brainer.

* TheMasquerade: No one must know of the potion. [[{{Foreshadowing}} The plastic surgeon even turns off his security camera before he tells Madeline about Lisle.]]

-->'''Ernest, referring to Madeline:''' Is 'it' up yet?

* AbsurdlySharpClaws: In one scene, Madeline leaves scratch-marks on a wooden column.

** Take responsibility for your actions, and don't let other ride roughshod over you just for an easier life. Ernest is initially just as bad as Madeline and Helen due to his weak will and wallowing in his own misery, but when he realises what they've become he takes the initiative and decides to leave and quit drinking, and is able to build a new and far better life.

* AmusingInjuries: This film has the most disturbing catalogue of such injuries this side of a Creator/TexAvery cartoon.

** The doctor who takes Madeline's vital signs after her tumble down the stairs, who's initially skeptical about her "revival", [[{{Irony}} ends up needing to be revived himself and dies shortly after]].

* BlondeBrunetteRedhead: See picture. Raven-haired Lisle could also count as the brunette, if the trio is composed of the significant women in the film.

** The movie opens on Madeline's head on the cover of a playbill laying on the ground at the entrance to a theater. [[spoiler:The movie ends with Madeline's ''actual head'' on the ground at the entrance of a church.]]

* CassandraTruth: At his funeral, the pastor talks of how one thing everyone loved about Ernest were his jokes such as his "tall tales of the living dead of Beverly Hills."

* ClassicalAntihero: Ernest is an ''extremely'' flawed man, a once-brilliant surgeon plagued by failure, alcoholism, and self-doubt, and very easily led around via his penis by Madeline and Helen. He achieves a more heroic status by being the one to realize the possible horrors involved in taking the potion, and the only one of the three who confronts his problems with aging, accepts them, and emerges a better person. He also is a meek nerd who fears confrontation, but ends up saving himself from the undead women's clutches.
* ComicallyMissingThePoint: More "dark comedy" but the end has Helen and Madeline gloating on how [[spoiler: they're still alive when Ernest is dead...ignoring that their "lives" are now as grotesque creatures who no doubt have to hide their true identities while Ernest lived a long and happy life with a family and legacy to remember him. And that's ''before'' they end up in pieces at bottom of the steps.]]

* DeathByCameo: The doctor played by Creator/SydneyPollack apparently suffers a heart attack when trying to get a second opinion about Madeline's condition, but realizing that the walking, talking Madeline is truly clinically dead.

** Lisle gives Madeline one when she guesses her age as 38; Mad quickly guesses 28 and 23 afterward.[[note]]For the record, Rossellini was 39 at time of filming.[[/note]]

* EvilCannotComprehendGood: Lisle and company are genuinely puzzled when Ernest refuses the potion. They are too self-centered and shallow to care about the reasons he has for not wanting to be immortal. They similarly mock the eulogy at his funeral which says that while Ernest has died, his legacy would live on and it was through his family, friends and good deeds that he had achieved immortality.

* FateWorseThanDeath: A major theme of the film, with the two ladies finding themselves trapped in immortal rotting bodies thanks to their toxic personalities. Ernest realizes that becoming immortal to spend eternity alongside them would be his own fate worse than death, and indeed, chooses death in favor of it. He survives to live a happy life free of them, though only as a result of rejecting them.

* ForTheEvulz: Mad revels in having (apparently) killed Helen with a point blank shotgun blast.

* HeelRealization: Ernest is a pretty awful person regardless of how bad Madeline and Helen are, being weak willed and rather spineless. He callously dumped Helen to marry Madeline and then agreed to Helen's elaborate plan to murder Madeline. His realization comes from seeing what Madeline and Helen have become thanks to the potion and their hatred for each other, and after repairing their bodies he decides to leave. [[spoiler:He truly cements it when he turns down the immortality serum, having personally witnessed two cases of its enormous downside, and not wanting to be trapped with Helen and Madeline for eternity.]]

* HeWhoFightsMonsters: Helen, after her life falls into the gutter when Madeline takes Ernest from her. She spends a long duration of her life wallowing before getting back on track, motivated by getting murderous revenge. By the end of the film, both her and Madeline are near interchangeable with each other, and ironically the only friends each other have.

* HollywoodMidLifeCrisis: All three main characters suffer this. Ernest learns to cope and appreciate what he's got at the end, and starts his life anew at 50, ending up ''much'' happier and more accomplished than before as a result.

* HumansAreBastards: Every major character seems to be pretty much a {{Jerkass}}, with the sole exception of Ernest - and even him only after HeelRealization.
* HumiliationConga: Madeline undergoes one of these the day before she's offerd the serum. Not only has Helen resurfaced, she's now somehow far more vibrant and beautiful than she ever was before, while Madeline's looks have faded with age. Depressed, she visits her younger lover, only to find that he's lost interest in her and is dating a girl his own age.

* IdiotBall: Helen. She manages to go as far as getting engaged to Ernest without Madeline finding out, so what does she do at victory laps? Introduce Ernest to Madeline, knowing full well that Mad will do anything to steal Ernest from her. She justifies this by saying that she needs him to pass the Madeline test (to see if her man is capable of resisting Mad), but would it be better to not risk it at all and just marry Ernest first, thus making him completely incapable of leaving her without financial ruin even if he becomes smitten with Mad?

* ImmediateSelfContradiction: Lislie asks Mad to guess her age, saying she won't be offended -- then gives her a nasty DeathGlare at her guess of 38 (an in-joke, since this was her actress real age at the time).

* INeedAFreakingDrink: The doctor is so taken aback by Madeline he asks for a swig of Ernest's flask.

* {{Irony}}: Madeline and Helen, who wish nothing more than seeing the other dead, are stuck having to take care of each other ''for eternity''. Also, Madeline at least was primarily motivated by the desire to stop aging. But now they're trapped in a far worse form of aging, which they can never escape-- decay.

* OurZombiesAreDifferent: Robert Zemeckis's take on said undead. These are fully-conscious people, but the bodies are injured and decaying.

* TheReveal: Mad and Hel show up at [[spoiler:Ernest's funeral wearing thick black veils. At first it seems like they're just trying to hide the fact that they're still physically 20-somethings despite being in their 80s, but when the veils come off, we see that their faces have been badly painted and look more disturbing than if they'd aged naturally.]]

* RoomFullOfCrazy: Helen's vanity mirror is covered with altered pictures of Madeline that makes her look like [[Film/TheDarkKnight Heath Ledger's Joker]].
* RuleOfFunny: [[spoiler:The life-ending injuries that Helen and Madeline inflicted on each other are more slapstick than realistic/scary. If there's even any effort to look realistic, Helen shouldn't even be able to walk upright without a spine and the repeated impacts to Madeline's neck and head would likely look more gory than the rubber-like appearance we get in the actual movie]].

* ScreamsLikeALittleGirl: Upon attempting to escape from Lisle's mansion, Ernest is chased by her two dobermans. And when the dogs rip off his suits, he screams in a high pitch.

* SkewedPriorities: [[spoiler:After leaving Ernest's funeral,]] both Madeline and Helen fall down stairs, which causes their already decaying bodies to break apart.

* SoBadItsGood: Played with in-universe. While most viewers of ''Songbird!'' hated it, Ernest fell in love with Madeline through watching her perform, effectively triggering the plot.

* {{Stripperiffic}}: Lisle's main outfit, which consists of a long red skirt with a slit up the leg that reaches her waist, and nothing above the waist except for a massive bejeweled necklace.

* TakeThatKiss: At the book party, Helen, having lost at least a hundred pounds of weight and looking more beautiful than she had pre-obesity, plants a lipstick kiss on Madeline, whom she knows is feeling bitter about her aging and fading star, especially after seeing Helen's miraculous youth and beauty and smash new book release.

** After spending much of the movie being an ExtremeDoormat who can't say no to either Madeleine ''or'' Helen, Ernest grows a spine and finally rejects both when it becomes clear that they are both supreme narcissists out to use and abuse him.

* TwoTimingWithTheBestie: The plot is kicked off with Madeline stealing her best friend, Helen's, fiance, Ernest. Years later, Helen returns, somehow rejuvenated, and begins a plot of revenge, seducing Ernest to kill Madeline and have him to herself

* WackySoundEffect: Madeline's de-aging breasts raise themselves and readjust with a cartoonish "pop!"

* WeCouldHaveAvoidedAllThis: Madeline and Helen do reconcile their differences, admitting they were secretly jealous of each other since they were kids. Had they hashed it out before taking the potion, they a) wouldn't be dead, b) they wouldn't have completely alienated Ernest, whom they realize they need to maintain them after all the damage they did.

* WreckedWeapon: When Madeline and Helen are hitting at each other with shovels, Madeline’s gets cut through by Helen’s.
* YankTheDogsChain: When faced with a life or death situation, Madeline and Helen nearly convince Ernest to take the potion. No doubt he believed for a moment that they were concerned for his well-being for once. ...And then they say out loud that he ''must'' take the potion, because they need him to maintain their dead bodies. This is reconstructed, as it finally lets Ernest see both girls' [[ItsAllAboutMe true nature]] and truly sever his ties with them.

* MeaningfulName: All over the place. For one, '''Ash'''ton fears growing old. '''Sharp''' is what Helen becomes. Both women become '''Mad''' as '''Hel'''. And, of course, '''Ernest''' '''Men'''ville. WordOfGod[[invoked]] says that the names of the three main characters were deliberately chosen so that their shortened forms read '''Mad''' '''Ern''' '''Hel''' -- Madder 'n Hell.

* ImmortalityImmaturity: The whole movie is a Deconstruction of LivingForeverIsAwesome, showing the people who take the immortality serum as shallow and immature, refusing to move past their 20's and actually move on in their lives. The immortal celebrities are all the same as when they "died" years ago, frozen in time like their own ghosts.

* ImmediateSelfContradiction: Lislie asks Mad to guess her age, saying she won't be offended -- then gives her a nasty DeathGlare at her guess of 38.

* ImmortalityHurts: Averted. Neither Madeline nor Helen feels her injuries.

* TrailersAlwaysSpoil: The trailer features a shot of Helen with a hole in her stomach and therefore gives away the twist that she too has taken the potion.

* IdiotBall: Helen. She manages to go as far as getting engaged to Ernest without Madeline finding out, so what does she do at victory laps? Introduce Ernest to Madeline, knowing full well that Mad will do anything to steal Ernest from her. She justifies this by saying that she needs him to pass the Madeline test, but would it be better to not risk it at all and just marry Ernest first, thus making him completely incapable of leaving her without financial ruin due to Californian laws? Helen knows this too, as it's the justification she uses to convince Ernest to kill Madeline instead of divorcing her.

* ArtisticLicenseBiology: There's some {{Squick}} if you [[FridgeLogic think about it]][[invoked]]. Helen no longer has a spine to hold her upright where the hole was blown in her - but she continues to move as if she does. If the writers considered this the way they did Madeline's head, it would throw off the rest of the story,[[note]]not to mention, create a budget-killing FX nightmare at the time[[/note]] so it's just better to leave it be as presented in the film.

* NoKillLikeOverkill: When Madeline first tries to murder Helen, she shoots her with an [[{{BFG}} antique elephant gun]]. As the name implies, those are meant for very big animals, not people.

* KarmaHoudini: Ernest does try to murder Madeline in a fit of rage without knowing about her immortality. Even before that, he agrees to go along with Helen's plan to murder her more discreetly. None of that causes him any trouble with the laws because Madeline doesn't stay dead and needs him later on.

* KarmaHoudini: Ernest does try to murder Madeline in a fit of rage without knowing about her immortality. Even before that, he agrees to go along with Helen's plan to murder her more discreetly. None of that comes back to bite him in the ass because Madeline doesn't stay dead and needs him later on.