The most traumatizing on-screen death of the year isn’t in a bloody battle or gunfight, but a quiet NYC apartment. If you can bear it, Netflix’s His Three Daughters is a heartbreaker.
Netflix has given us plenty of reasons to cry over the last nine months. We’ve had the terrifying stalker ordeal in Baby Reindeer (and the Fiona Harvey fallout), the haunted spirits of The Deliverance, and the emotional romance of One Day.
There haven’t been as many major death scenes on the streaming service… until now. Unlike any kills in Longlegs or tragic accidents in Mother’s Instinct, the most brutal death scene of 2024 comes from a dad’s terminal illness in His Three Daughters, which is now on Netflix.
We’re going to talk about that gut-wrenching ending now, so SPOILERS AHEAD…
The new movie follows three sisters as they support their dad in his final moments, and there’s plenty of unresolved tension between them. We never see their dad fighting for his life in his room – but that changes in the final moment, when we witness his death playing out on screen.
The girls wheel him into the living room, where he suddenly regains health and tells his daughters all the things he wishes they’d have known over the years. Except he hasn’t really come back at all… he’s died while his consciousness has floated away.
It’s an undeniable tear-jerker, but it’s almost a moment director Azazel Jacobs didn’t actually plan for.
Speaking to Dexerto, he explained, “When I was writing, I also thought that we’d never go into the room and see this. I knew that I didn’t want to go into his room, but all of a sudden I had these characters who were emerging with their father, and it scared me. It wound up really exciting.
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“It felt like I set up this rule but this rule is there to be broken. I like films that go someplace that you’re just not expecting. And then I started realizing how nice it would be if we had a moment to get to say, ‘I love you and I’m sorry’.”
“It became something that I really wanted from the father,” he continued. “I wanted to hear who this person was so that I could feel his absence. I felt like if we never saw him, we’d wind up with a very neat, very small film.
“Because it happens, it goes to someplace that you have to wrestle with, and it becomes a film quite different to what you’d expect.”
If you’re not sold by the idea of drawn-out death, His Three Daughters has a flawless 100% score on Rotten Tomatoes.
Robert Daniels at Screen International wrote, “The heartbreaking plunge into sisterhood and grief that is His Three Daughters is an intensely composed elegy about the devastating effect of saying goodbye to a parent.”
“His Three Daughters proves that all you need to create something unforgettable is a grounded story that touches people and the remarkable talent who can help bring it to life,” Ethan Dayton at That Shelf agreed.
His Three Daughters is available to stream on Netflix from September 20. You can find more Netflix updates for Virgin River Season 6, Stranger Things Season 5, and Heartstopper Season 3. You can also check out new movies streaming this month.
