She Dies Tomorrow is a low-budget indie film from 2020. It's not quite horror, not quite thriller, not science fiction -- though it could have been effectively any of those with more commitment. As the movie opens, Amy is in a lethargic reverie, listening to Mozart's Requiem over and over again and she wanders listlessly around her house. Her friend Jane arrives, but Amy is inconsolable: she is certain that she is going to die tomorrow. Jane ultimately leaves... but can't shake the feelings of her encounter with Amy. She too is now convinced that she will die tomorrow. And as she proceeds to have interactions with more people, the sensation spreads like a pandemic: everyone she interacts with becomes convinced that they are going to die tomorrow.
On paper, this seems like a more intellectual, psychological take on Final Destination. How do different people react to the news that they're living their last night on Earth? And just what horror awaits them "tomorrow?" Are they really going to die? How? The possibilities seem endless! And so it's utterly frustrating that this movie doesn't pick up on any of them.
The reactions to the news of impending death are disappointingly uniform throughout this movie. These characters don't truly seem afflicted with cursed knowledge so much as they struck by profound lethargy. Tantalizing suggestions of what they might be seeing and experiencing are left only as suggestions; the audience is forced to do all the work here, relying on only a few flashing lights as guidance.
My experience with the short, 84-minute movie unspooled in four phases (each feeling perhaps as long as 84 minutes on its own). The opening section is frustratingly sparse and pretentious, but I hung on figuring I needed to give the movie space to set the stage on its own terms. Then the story actually begins to spin up -- at a maddeningly slow pace, but I figured it had to be heading somewhere. Then I was sure I hated the movie, but I kind of had to see where it was going to end up. Finally, I learned that the filmmakers had no interest in actually explaining anything, instead delivering an abrupt and unsatisfying ending. At any one of the points along the way, I could have taken the hint and bailed.
The acting doesn't save anything. Though there are a few actors you may recognize from other places (including Chris Messina, Michelle Rodriguez, and Josh Lucas), none of them get to give an interesting performance. Script and director are both forcing them down a path of behaving withdrawn and cowed, which only makes a tedious story that much more boring.
Quite simply, there is no there there. She Dies Tomorrow is an absolute grade F of a film, a complete waste of my time... and I only waste more time writing about it now in the hopes of saving others. Do. Not. Watch.
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