If you’re a Beatles fan like me, the title of the movie All You Need Is Death might remind you of their song “All You Need Is Love.” But this movie takes us on a wild ride, exploring a big question: Are love and death interchangeable? Is loving someone all about taking everything from them until their last breath? It sounds intense, doesn’t it? Well, for some people, maybe it is. Love can be a powerful force, and sometimes, it can lead to obsession or even betrayal. There’s an old Irish ballad that warns us about this, saying that love and betrayal can curse you and haunt you till the end of your days. Now, let me tell you about All You Need Is Death movie! It’s centered around Anna and Aleks, two young people who stumble upon some ancient folk songs that have never been discovered before, all thanks to their mysterious boss, Agnes. But one day, they meet an old woman named Rita Concannon, who sings them one haunting ballad, and then… she dies! Could it be that Rita unleashed a curse trapped in that song? So, Breezeblock, Rita’s son, is on a mission to find out who or what killed his mom. Meanwhile, Anna, Aleks, and Agnes try to translate the mysterious song, and eventually, their lives turn upside down. What happens to them? Let’s find out, but it’s true: the sweet revenge against love may not always be as sweet as we imagine it to be!
Spoilers Ahead
What happened to Rita?
Anna and Aleks are a young couple who’ve been in the music business for some years. Well, “music business” might be putting it lightly. They actually work for an organization led by a woman named Agnes. Their job? They travel around, collecting old folk songs from people. These folk songs come in different variants and versions, and if they’re lucky, they even discover some that have never been heard before! But it isn’t an easy job. Anna and Aleks often find themselves in shady places and sometimes have to pretend they’re not a couple—maybe even pretend they’re brother and sister—to get what they need. Why? Because the locals don’t want these long-forgotten folk songs to be showcased. These songs are actually forbidden to be spoken about. Maybe that’s why they’ve remained undiscovered for so long.
In Agnes’s organization, she listens to these songs and decides if they are worthy of being out in the wider world for people to listen to. If they’re written in an old language, they try to translate them. That’s Anna and Aleks’ job. One day, while on the hunt for these songs, they hear about someone named Rita Concannon, who might know about old Irish songs. When they mention this to Agnes, she says she doesn’t know anyone by that name, but there was a Maggie Concannon in the Crossmaglen area who died five years ago. Anna has a hunch that Rita might be Maggie’s daughter. So, without wasting any time, they head off to find her. They meet a man named Ron in the area. When they start asking about Rita, Ron realizes they might be from the press and tries to steer them away. But with Anna’s charm, sweet talk, and Irish accent, she wins Ron over, and he leads them to Rita’s house.
When Anna and Aleks arrive at Rita’s old mansion, it’s the kind of place that gives you the creeps just looking at it. The house is filled with puppets that hang everywhere. They later find out that Rita’s son, Breezeblock, is a puppeteer—that explains the puppets! But here’s the shocker: sitting in the house is none other than Agnes! Has she betrayed them? Did she find out about the source and race here to get the song before Anna and Aleks could? Before they can ponder this, they search for Rita but can’t find her. It turns out she’s an old lady who prefers to hide away and talk to people from a closet. She’s been isolated for too long and isn’t exactly popular with the locals. When Anna and Aleks finally meet Rita, she takes a liking to Anna. Why? Because Anna promises never to reveal the song they’re after to the outside world.
Rita finds Anna trustworthy. Rita explains that the song must only be passed on by women, so she asks Aleks to leave the room. As soon as Aleks walks out, Rita talks about how the song, written in old Irish, was passed down from her mother. It’s a tale of love and betrayal. A king cursed a woman he loved because she betrayed him, and in her despair, her love for her man and child turned into a curse. Hungry and isolated, she fed on her lover and child while she was kept in isolation. Rita warns them never to record or write down the song, only to memorize it. It should only be remembered and sung by women. Then she sings the song. Even though Anna and Agnes don’t understand the words, they feel as though the song is consuming them. As they leave the place, someone comes in and brutally kills Rita with a glass bottle. Who could it be? Could this be punishment for unleashing the curse on the outside world? Even though Anna promised not to record it, Agnes had secretly recorded the song. It’s out there now, and Rita has paid the price.
How did Anna seek revenge?
Once Agnes found out about the song, she and Aleks started translating the lyrics. But let me tell you, things didn’t go well for the two of them. As they worked on the song, something strange began to happen. It wasn’t love that grew between them, but more like a twisted kind of lust. Aleks started to waste away, looking like a walking zombie on the brink of death. Meanwhile, Agnes’s belly began to swell. But she couldn’t be pregnant; she’d had a hysterectomy. Could it be that she was unknowingly consuming Aleks? Maybe they had betrayed the love between Anna and Aleks. According to the song, they were getting what they deserved! Meanwhile, Rita’s son, Breezeblock, was on a mission to find his mother’s killer. He didn’t know who it could be, but from his experiences, we gather that these folk songs and the curses within them didn’t sit well with his family. Both his mother and grandmother had died singing these songs. And because he wasn’t a woman, he’d been haunted by mysterious black-shadow creatures for years. To escape their torment, he had undergone gender reassignment surgery, hoping to break free from the curse. Anna and Breezeblock eventually crossed paths and decided to confront Agnes and Aleks, suspecting them of killing Rita. But when they arrived, and the truth came to light—how Anna had been betrayed by both Aleks and Agnes—she lost her temper. In a fit of rage, she not only killed Agnes and Aleks but also Breezeblock. Anna believed that because of Breezeblock’s mother’s cursed song, she had lost the love of her life.
And what happened to Anna, at the end of All You Need Is Death? As we’ve seen with Aleks and Agnes, consumed by their twisted relationship, they transformed into a single, monstrous creature resembling an evil spirit. Now, as Anna sang the old folk song before this creature, it came before her, feeding on her—on her love, to be precise—snuffing it out and leaving her lifeless. Now, this cursed creature is out in the world! Who knows what it will do next? Perhaps it will seek revenge on those who betray love or feed on it. Maybe it will curse those who dare to love. The ultimate tragedy seems to be the death of the true essence of love itself!
