Summary

• Death Proof's visual inconsistency, shifting from grindhouse style to black and white, impacts its overall quality and reception.
• Tarantino's weakness in writing dialogue for female characters is evident in Death Proof, unlike his previous works.
• The second half of Death Proof lacks the suspense and entertainment value of the first half, causing many viewers to lose interest.

Death Proof marked a first in Quentin Tarantino’s career as it’s his only horror movie to date, and it’s also his biggest failure. Quentin Tarantino has become one of the best filmmakers of his generation but also one of the most controversial due to the violence in every one of his movies. Still, Tarantino’s works have been praised for their narrative and visual style, his mastery in writing dialogue, and more, and though some of his movies are considered among the best films ever made, some haven’t had the same success.

In 2007, Tarantino himself its it’s his weakest movie – and here are 10 reasons Death Proof was a failure.

10 Death Proof Is Visually Inconsistent

As part of the Grindhouse project, Death Proof has the visual style of grindhouse and exploitation movies from the 1970s, but unlike its sibling film, Planet Terror, Death Proof didn’t stick to this aesthetic. The first part of Death Proof is in full grindhouse style, with bright colors and the style of an old movie. The beginning of the second part of the story is in black and white, and it suddenly changes to color and good quality, leaving the grindhouse look behind. While this can be explained as part of the Grindhouse project's aesthetic, it gave Death Proof an inconsistent look that, ultimately, impacted the overall quality of the movie and its reception.

9 Quentin Tarantino Can’t Write Dialogue For Female Characters

One of the most praised elements in Quentin Tarantino’s movies is the dialogue. Tarantino’s ability to write dialogue has been praised, which is often heavy on pop culture references, and it’s key in understanding the dynamics, motivations, and personalities of the characters. Death Proof, however, and unlike Tarantino’s previous works, has more dialogue between female characters, as the main characters are all women. Tarantino used the same style he had used for all his male characters in Death Proof’s female ones, which felt off and brought out a weakness in Tarantino’s writing.

8 Only The First Half Of Death Proof Is Entertaining

The first part of Death Proof follows Arlene (Vanessa Ferlito), Shanna (Jordan Ladd), and Jungle Julia (Sydney Tamiia Poitier) who meet Stuntman Mike at a bar, where he claims a lap dance from Arlene that Jungle Julia promised on her radio show. Later, an old friend of Julia, Pam (Rose McGowan), takes Stuntman Mike’s offer for a ride home, but he kills her by speeding and slamming on the brakes. Stuntman Mike then catches up with Julia and company, crashing into their car, and killing them in truly gruesome ways.

The second half of Death Proof sees Stuntman Mike targeting a new group of women, but to his surprise, they know how to fight back. However, this second half is slower and lacks the suspense of the first part of Death Proof, to the point where many viewers have shared that they lost interest in the characters and stories throughout the second half of the movie.

7 Death Proof Makes It Hard To Care About Its Characters

Death Proof spends enough time with Jungle Julia and her friends in the first part of the movie to make the audience care about them, but the same can’t be said about the second group. While they end up being the heroes of the movie, Death Proof doesn’t do much to make the audience care about them and what will happen to them next, and the character of Stuntman Mike isn’t properly developed, leading to the audience not even caring about the villain. The heroes aren’t exactly likable, either, leaving the audience with no one to really root for.

6 Death Proof Suffers From Slow Pacing

Quentin Tarantino is no stranger to starting his movies with a bang, but what happened with Death Proof is that it never recovered from its shocking first act. The rest of Death Proof sees Stuntman Mike going after Abernathy (Rosario Dawson), Kim (Tracie Thomas), and Zoë (Zoë Bell), but the chase and the women’s revenge take too long to happen and reach their peak. Death Proof starts to take off again towards the end, but never truly does so as the movie comes to an end when the women finally get their revenge.

5 Death Proof Doesn’t Deliver On Its Slasher Premise

Death Proof is considered a slasher movie even if it doesn’t go all the way, but even if it just took the structure of a slasher movie, it still didn’t deliver on that promise. Death Proof leans more towards an action thriller, and though Stuntman Mike’s murders are very graphic and horrible, especially those of Jungle Julia and her friends, Death Proof doesn’t really feel like a slasher movie. Still, Death Proof is considered Quentin Tarantino’s only horror movie to date, even if it falls short.

4 Death Proof’s Climax & Ending Are Underwhelming

Death Proof’s slow pace made the climax and ending pretty underwhelming. As mentioned above, the movie takes too long to set up the Abernathy and friends' conflict with Stuntman Mike, and by the time they can finally get their revenge, the movie ends. The big moment of Abernathy, Kim, and Zoë beating an injured Stuntman Mike ended up being more comedic than exciting, and the movie ends as Stuntman Mike falls and the women celebrate their win. Of course, this deeply affected Death Proof’s reception with critics and viewers, making it a forgettable movie.

3 Death Proof Was Overshadowed By Planet Terror

By itself, Death Proof still wouldn’t have succeeded, but its failure was made worse by its sibling film, Planet Terror. Unlike Death Proof, Planet Terror fully embraced the horror genre with its zombie apocalypse story and its very graphic scenes. Planet Terror had a consistent visual style, its characters were developed enough for the audience to root for them, and it was packed with action from beginning to end. Planet Terror also had a proper ending, and even had a small tease at the end (though that will never pay off).

2 Death Proof Was A Quentin Tarantino Vanity Project

Although the idea of a double-feature B-movie style project like Grindhouse sounds interesting, it risked only appealing to a specific audience, even if it counted on the talents of Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino. Rodriguez delivered on the horror/grindhouse style of the project with Planet Terror, while Tarantino made his interpretation of a slasher movie that, ultimately, would only be exciting for him. Surely, Tarantino ended up itting that Death Proof isn’t his best work, but in big part, the movie’s failure was because it wouldn’t really appeal to a wide audience, like his other projects.

1 Quentin Tarantino's Style Doesn't Work For Death Proof

Perhaps the biggest problem with Death Proof is that it doesn’t feel like a Quentin Tarantino movie because his style doesn’t fit the movie. As mentioned above, Tarantino’s style of dialogue didn’t fit the female characters, and his trademark long speeches felt off with the overall style of Death Proof. Surely, Tarantino’s style of violence was perfect for it, but that’s about it. Death Proof could have benefited from having Quentin Tarantino as producer, a better script, and a different director, but that wasn’t the case.