She Never Died (yes, SHE!)

She Never Died (2019)

Dir. Audrey Cummings

Written by Jason Krawczyk

Starring Olunike Adeliyi, Peter MacNeill, Kiana Madeira, Noah Dalton Danby, Michelle Nolden

I was genuinely surprised when I saw they made a sequel to HE NEVER DIED, the Henry-Rollins-starring cannibal/action/horror/drama/comedy that so unexpectedly delighted me back when I randomly caught it in 2015 during the AFI Spooky Movie Festival. Not that I wouldn’t be up for spending more time with Jack, the immortal, perpetually put-upon bingo enthusiast played by Rollins, but it just seemed like the first film wrapped up so neatly that it didn’t demand any further exploration. It was the first film I’d seen in ages to premise itself upon a J.J. Abrams-style mystery box and then actually have the goods to pay off that mystery with an interesting, satisfying solution – but in doing so, it didn’t seem to leave a sequel with much room for a similar mystery hook. Still, the possibility of kicking around for a sequel adventure with Rollins’ hilariously deadpan weirdo seemed appealing enough – which makes it doubly surprising that he isn’t in it! The fact that this “sequel” even takes place in the same universe as HE NEVER DIED is attested to only obliquely. If it didn’t have that title, I’m genuinely not sure even people who had seen HE NEVER DIED would have put together that this was a sequel, and, in fact, a sequel with some pretty serious and ballsy implications for a franchise.

First things first, though: although it will eventually expand the mythology somewhat, SHE NEVER DIED is primarily one of those genre sequels which is essentially a remake and remix of the first one, like EVIL DEAD 2 or FROM DUSK TIL DAWN 3, or SECOND TO LAST TEMPTATION OF CHRIST or FRIDAY THE 13th Parts 2, 3, 4, 6, and 7, and to a lesser but still obvious extent also 5 and 8. Just like HE NEVER DIED, SHE NEVER DIED introduces us to an isolated, socially awkward weirdo who, uh, never died. But, as the title might suggest, it is not the same isolated, socially awkward weirdo, but instead a woman named Lacey (Olunike Adelivi, a surprisingly lengthy filmography including SAW: THE FINAL CHAPTER, THE PRODIGY, and UNDERCOVER BROTHER [uncredited]) who is living as a homeless derelict and moonlighting as a brutal vigilante who stalks the members of a human trafficking ring led by an absolutely magnificent douche named Terrance (a superbly entertaining Noah Dalton Danby, another surprisingly lengthy filmography including DETROIT ROCK CITY, RIDDICK, and EXIT WOUNDS [!]).

If her actions seem very slightly more proactive than Jack’s did, however, her personality is even more reserved. If Jack was utterly disinterested in the world, Lacey seems downright disengaged from it. She has a flat affect and glazed eyes, seems to be completely lost in her own mind, barely even aware of anything around her. When someone talks to her, it seems to take a conscious effort for her to drag herself out of her own thoughts and focus on the speaker. She comes off, in fact, as mildly autistic, not just annoyed by the unwanted intrusion of other humans’ problems --like Jack was-- but genuinely uncomprehending of them. If Jack has isolated himself in a hermetic routine, she has isolated herself within her own mind. Which makes it all the more startling when something finally jars her out of her stupor, and she suddenly roars into a focused, predatory frenzy that is likely to be fatal for anyone around her.

This makes her a harder character to relate to than her irascible, eccentric counterpart in the prequel. Consequently, the movie adopts a slightly different structure from its predecessor, framing the film mostly from the perspective of the other characters who are reacting to Lacey, keeping her at a mysterious distance. Thus, we are introduced to Detective Godfrey (Peter MacNeill, yet another startlingly lengthy filmography, including CRASH [the David Cronenberg one], A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE, REGRESSION) an old police veteran who is worrisomely close to retirement but would really love to finally nail the shadowy syndicate which has been kidnapping people and forcing them into brutal snuff films for a live internet audience. When Lacey crashes one of these films and provides an appropriately gory end for the filmmakers, she winds up on the radar of both the Godfrey and the gang, and things get even more complicated after she's joined by an unlikely sidekick, bubbly chatterbox Suzzie (Kiana Madeira, still another busy filmography, most notably an episode of The Flash) who she unintentionally rescued from a gristly death.

The details may be different, but when you get down to it this sounds like little more than a few cosmetic alterations to HE NEVER DIED; again, you have two acolytes, one chipper and persistent, the other disbelieving but curious, who gravitate to our Never Dyer du jour, while meanwhile an obtuse crime plot plays out in the background and provides some antagonists. But it turns out that even gently adjusting the levels of these elements produces a rather startlingly different effect. Despite a functionally identical plot, SHE feels much more like an ensemble piece than HE did, adopting the point-of-view of multiple different characters as they gradually figure out what Lacey is and consider what they want from her. Refocusing the movie this way is kind of a risky move, given the extent to which HE hung together entirely on Rollins’ great character work and inimitable personality. Fortunately, everybody here turns out to be more than up to the task; I didn’t recognize a single face, but, as you have seen, it turns out the cast is absolutely stacked with venerable Canadian character actors, and all those dozens of cheapie American genre flicks and TV shows that shot there to save money have provided this demographic with enough experience that they’re uniformly ready for their big showcase roles here.

 That they have good material to work with certainly helps; writer Jason Krawczyk brings the same offbeat wit he brought last time around. The characters are broad, but distinct and fun, quippy in that most rare of ways which doesn’t seem derivative of Tarantino or tediously labored. Director Audrey Cummings (DARKEN, TORMENTED), stepping in for Krawczyk while he supposedly develops this as a mini-series(?), manages the tone very nicely, giving the actors plenty of room to play up their colorful characters without allowing things to drift into frivolous, low-stakes comedy. Instead, it has the loose, scrappy energy of a 90's indie caper, chatty and maybe a little more self-consciously offbeat than is entirely good for it, but blessedly free of the relentless high-concept plottiness of the current cinematic era. You could definitely show this along with SUICIDE KINGS and THE BIG HIT and, aside from a few inconspicuous bits of technology, never guess it was made twenty years later. Not that it's in any way a pastiche; it's just a good vibe for this material. Not plotless, but less focused on plot than on hanging around with a bunch of colorful weirdos.

That was true of HE NEVER DIED too, of course, but the emphasis on the ensemble here highlights it even more. In particular, it’s worth pointing out what a tremendous improvement the villains are this time, with Danby creating a sleazeball character who is both utterly loathsome and terrifically entertaining. It turns out his boss is his yuppie sister (Michelle Nolden, CHRISTMAS HORROR STORY, HAUNTER, RED, THE TIME TRAVELER’S WIFE) who moonlights as a sadistic gang leader in-between yoga classes, and who is, if perhaps just a little more cartoonish than the other characters, at least a delightfully hissable villain, and a great foil for our homeless African-American Canadian protagonist. Their flippant, vain villainy got big laughs from my audience (and hopefully gets these actors some bigger parts down the line) but without sacrificing genuine menace or tempting us to identify with them, a subtly tough tone to get right.

 It’s also worth noting the mercifully understated portent of having a homeless black woman fight smug, bourgeois human traffickers; race is never explicitly an issue, but it's hard to ignore the the implications here, especially when they capture Lacey and put her in chains. That uncomfortable image smartly and quietly prompts us to consider a little bit about Lacey’s experience as an immortal. Being an ageless supernatural entity is hard enough on its own (or so I've learned from the endless parade of sad Draculas), but imagine trying it as a female minority! One of the funniest scenes in HE NEVER DIED found Jack offering a comically long list of jobs he’s had over the centuries. He does not describe a life of luxury (it’s a mostly blue-collar resume), but one can’t help but notice there’s no parallel scene for Lacey. It makes me think of Louis CK’s routine* “Time Travel is a White Privilege." Jack may have been miserable, but at least he had options. Black people have had a pretty bad run for a few centuries, especially in the Americas. And being a woman has made things harder pretty much everywhere, since forever. No wonder she seems obliquely unwilling to pay much attention to the world.

This is all left unsaid (to the movie’s enormous benefit); there's only a light suggestion of how enormously alone and beleaguered Lacey must feel, and the movie's focus is squarely on being a feisty, colorful horror/crime flick. Still, there's a unmistakable shadow of philosophical pathos in here, which makes the more familiar joys of supernatural violence hit a little harder. HE NEVER DIED did a magnificent job with this, and Cummings manages that tone at least as well as Krawczyk did, although she doesn’t do much to improve on his cheap-looking, rather style-less aesthetic. No matter; the content is entertaining enough that a simple, unflashy point-and-shoot style gets the job done, making the most of the gritty urban decay of the Canadian locations. In fact, I kind of love that these movies about ageless supernatural beings both take place in bland, run-down Canadian suburbs. I can’t find out specifically where SHE NEVER DIED was shot, but while its predecessor was supposedly shot in Toronto, it’s obviously not the part of Toronto that usually plays New York City. Both movies have a small-time, suburban outskirts feel to them, full of rotting industrial buildings and decaying, dirty strip malls. Nothing towering and gothic, just a drably dismal landscape of slow, dispirited neglect. Even the despicable villains are hardly plotting global domination from the penthouse of Trump Tower; their viciousness and greed looks like it just barely puts them in the upper middle class. They still spend most of their time working in grungy, unfurnished concrete buildings and hustling for new prospects. They can afford to buy off the local cops, but one gets the feeling a federal investigation would have no trouble locking these small-timers up and throwing away the key, if they ever bothered. The small scale keeps things personal, lets the movie focus on its characters rather than getting caught up in a bunch of complex, overwrought plotting about the fate of humanity.

 This all adds up to a charming little genre hybrid peppered with great moments,  though admittedly one which is functionally similar enough to its predecessor that it could hardly be called essential (despite a little extra action and gore, much appreciated). It would be hard to follow HE NEVER DIED in any case, but there's no denying that this feels a little less impactful, lacking its predecessor's element of surprise and failing to find a similarly potent substitute for the utter perfection of Rollins' take on a very similar character. It's a lot of fun, but even by the worthy standards of horror sequels which are essentially remakes, it feels a little bit safe and familiar, unable or unwilling to escalate things or expand the world.

Or, so I thought, until the movie ended, and then I realized it hadn’t quite ended yet. There's a little teaser of a coda at the end, and one so brazenly provocative that it retroactively forgives a lot of the film's general reluctance to break new ground. I wondered how Krawczyk though he was going to turn his simple little story about an eccentric immortal into a series; well, now I guess I have an idea. Whatever comes next seems like it's gonna be pretty wild. Still, SHE NEVER DIED is perfectly convincing proof that this series' ongoing existence needn't be contingent on ambitious narrative conceits. If the pleasures of watching a brusque, indestructible cannibal disinterestedly massacring small-time Canadian gangsters are simple ones, they at least remain reliable. If GENDER-NONBINARY-PRONOUN NEVER DIED does nothing but swap in another weirdo character actor and let them go to town on some local hoods, I'll still probably enjoy the hell out of that too, as long as it can maintain this level of shaggy, offbeat fun. Still, the ending here makes me excited about the possibility that there are still some pretty wild places for this concept to go.

  

* The fact that this reference has some baggage of its own now is telling in its own right.

               

CHAINSAWNUKAH 2019 CHECKLIST!

For Richer or Horror

TAGLINE	Everyone Has Their Demons. Pretty generic, and doesn't even seem to make sense with the movie because there are, I notice, no demons in it.
TITLE ACCURACY	Confirmed, the titular "she" does not die at any point.
LITERARY ADAPTATION?	No
SEQUEL?	Yes, to 2015's HE NEVER DIED
REMAKE?	None.
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN	USA/ Canada
HORROR SUB-GENRE	Sort of vaguely vampire/cannibal, but it kinda defies genre.
SLUMMING A-LISTER?	None.
BELOVED HORROR ICON?	None
NUDITY?	None, which is probably just as well given its grim subject matter. As it is, the movie is able to stay agreeably light even in the face of villains who run a snuff-film ring; getting sleazy about it might have pushed things into more unpleasant territory.
SEXUAL ASSAULT?	None
WHEN ANIMALS ATTACK!	None
GHOST/ ZOMBIE / HAUNTED BUILDING?	None
POSSESSION?	None
CREEPY DOLLS?	None.
EVIL CULT?	No
MADNESS?	No
TRANSMOGRIFICATION?	None
VOYEURISM?	Yes, via the live-stream murder viewers
MORAL OF THE STORY	Canada's way more intense than you think.