It appears that it is once again soapbox o’clock here in my corner of HorrorBuzz, as I review All Must Die, a slasher with the worst slasher gimmick out there, but Norwegian this time.

Gina (Viktoria Winge) is reeling from a major fight with her fiance, and with the wedding date only two weeks away, she doesn’t know what to do. Luckily, she’s saved from overthinking by her friends, who whisk her away for a bachelorette party in the woods. Knowing the bride-to-be is a hardcore horror fan, the ladies have a few tricks planned to ensure their friend has a party like no other. But how much of the night’s frights are just a game becomes increasingly less clear as the sun sets and tensions rise.

I’d say the first three-quarters of this movie was a solid B-movie offering. The cast had decent chemistry, and while it probably wouldn’t win any major awards, it had a creative premise and a genre-aware protagonist who gave as good as she got. That much is a breath of fresh air. Then, somewhere into the fourth quarter, it all goes to hell.

To avoid spoilers, click away now. But, unfortunately, I can’t review this film properly without them.

With a heavy sigh, I must inform you that we have been Psycho‘d. Haute Tension‘d, even. Every bad thing that happens to the protagonists of All Must Die happens by the hand of lead protagonist Gina herself. Or, more specifically, her ~evil~ alternate persona, Benedicte. No matter how completely illogical, it was somehow her all along.

Now, I’m not an expert on Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID). I’m sure it’s not impossible for someone to repress the traumatic memories of having an alter, and not everyone with DID is a cooperative system. But it bears repeating – since, apparently, it’s not getting through to people – that people with DID and other behavioral disorders are more likely to be victims of abuse and violence than they are to be perpetrators. There is no excuse for the movie to go for this “twist,” especially when the horror genre’s consistent portrayal of people with DID as monsters waiting to snap is part of what contributes to the violence against them.

Let’s face it: the horror genre has an ableism problem. There is a tendency for able-bodied, neurotypical creators to treat their way of experiencing the world as the default, casting anything else aside as uncanny or even abject. This, in turn, reinforces existing stigmas against those who are disabled, as, consciously or unconsciously, abled people internalize those portrayals. All Must Die is far from being the only piece of media guilty of this, but its misrepresentation of DID spoils the whole film, not only making it another piece of ableist garbage, but a nonsensical story as well.

Do better.

If you’re looking for a place to start doing some reading on the realities of DID, here is a short article with useful statistics for your perusal.