This thriller is quite thought provoking and scary.
The premise of “She Dies Tomorrow” is released on a timely basis, given the COVID-19 crisis when social distancing is crucial for our health. A person is convinced that he/she will die tomorrow, and those dark thoughts are contagious, as more people begin to believe they’ve booked meetings with old Mr. Grim.
Throughout my viewing experience, I’ve been asking myself: if it were true and they were going to actually perish the next day, how would it go down. Are they in a 3-step process like in “The Killing of a Sacred Deer?” Would they explode like the family at the end of “Ready or Not?” Would some killer show up like in “Scream” or “Happy Death Day?” Would Thanos just erase them from existence? Just kidding. Does a light send them to their demise like an insect at a bug zapper? Or would they die of natural causes? I honestly doubt about the commercial movie deaths happening to them, but I do know the thought of death is horrifying. “She Dies Tomorrow” is poetic and chilling in that notion.
Amy (Kate Lyn Sheil) contracts the disease from her boyfriend (Kentucker Audley), and listens to Mozart’s “Lacrimosa” over and over again, before she informs her older friend Jane (Jane Adams).
Now, Jane has it, and she passes the disease to her brother Jason (Chris Messina), his wife Susan (Katie Aselton), their daughter (Madison Calderon), their friends (Tunde Adebimpe and Jennifer Kim), and her doctor (Josh Lucas). And later in the movie, we see Michelle Rodriguez and Olivia Taylor Dudley sitting by their pool with a dying victim swimming about.
Written and directed by Amy Seimetz, “She Dies Tomorrow” does have some unnecessary color hallucinations, which I feel are a little boring and are just there to make this 84-minute movie longer. I mean I do love the shots of the red and blue lights flashing on Amy’s face, though. But besides that, it really scares you with the thoughts of death, and if it will happen to you the next day. Who wouldn’t be frightened of that? I sure as Hell would be.
The performances from the leads are chilling and electrifying. Sheil and Adams respectively have their moments of denial and acceptance, and they don’t freak out when they receive the thoughts. They just let nature take it course.
You also have the other infected characters connecting with their spouses about how their lives have turned out and what happened to place them in their directions. And like the leads, they just slowly and delicately process their turmoil. It’s just the daughter of Jason and Susan who freaks out in her room.
Most people are scared of this COVID-19 pandemic, but we have to be optimistic that society will return to normal. We’re more positive about it than the characters in “She Dies Tomorrow.” The point is the movie knows what pops in their heads, and that thought is horrifying on so many levels.
⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2
Available on Various Streaming Services
Leave a Reply