Death Becomes Her is a 1992 American satirical surrealistic[3] black comedy fantasy film directed and produced by Robert Zemeckis and written by David Koepp and Martin Donovan.

Madeline drinks the potion, which reverses her age, restoring her beauty, but Lisle warns her that she must disappear from the public eye after ten years, to avoid suspicion of her immortality, and treat her body well.

Ernest survives the fall after landing in Lisle's pool and escapes, leaving the pair in despair at the realization that they will have to depend on each other for companionship and maintenance, forever.

Thirty-seven years later, Madeline and Helen attend Ernest's funeral, where he is eulogized as having achieved true immortality by living an adventurous and fulfilling life and having many children and grandchildren.

Now grotesque parodies of their former selves, with cracked, peeling paint and putty covering most of their grey and decrepit flesh, Helen and Madeline mock the eulogy and leave.

Before Bruce Willis was cast, Kevin Kline was the first choice to play Dr. Ernest Menville; however, he fell out of the project due to a pay dispute with the studio.

[7][8] Death Becomes Her was a technologically complex film to make, and represented a major advancement in the use of CGI effects, under the direction of Industrial Light & Magic.

[11][12] The digital advancements pioneered on Death Becomes Her would be incorporated into Industrial Light and Magic's next project, Jurassic Park, released by Universal only a year later.

[16] That ending featured Ernest, after he has fled Lisle's party, meeting a bartender named Toni (Tracey Ullman) who helps him fake his death to evade Madeline and Helen.

The two women encounter Ernest and the bartender 27 years later, living happily as a retired couple while Madeline and Helen give no sign that they are enjoying their eternal existence.

[2] In Taipei, Death Becomes Her set a box-office record by earning $269,310 in two days, marking it the "biggest opening ever" for overseas distributor United International Pictures.

[1] The film's release on DVD was called "appallingly bad" due to the quality of its transfer, which has been said to suffer from excessive grain, blur, and muted colors.

Death Becomes Her was initially distributed in an open matte fullscreen (1.33:1) edition in the U.S. while a Widescreen version with its theatrical aspect ratio (1.85:1) was released worldwide.

[23][24] Death Becomes Her received mixed reviews from critics, who praised its special effects and lead performances, but found it lacking depth and substance.

[30] 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.

"[33] 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.

[36][37] 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.

[38] 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".

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.

[44][45][46] 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.

[49] Tom Campbell, an executive producer of RuPaul's Drag Race, reflected on the appeal of the movie to gay audiences:They're fighting for beauty.

'[5]In May 2024, RuPaul's Drag Race's Trinity the Tuck and Jujubee released their single "'Til Death Becomes Us" alongside a music video, serving as an homage to the original film.

[53] The cast featured Megan Hilty as Madeline, Jennifer Simard as Helen, Christopher Sieber as Ernest and Michelle Williams as Viola Van Horn, the character originally named Lisle von Rhuman.