She Dies Tomorrow

I like visually interesting art house-ish type of stuff, but this was just boring with no pay off. It's just poor story telling. Save your time and skip this one.

It's like mixing the taste of a modern film student with the "can't write an ending" constipation of Stephen King. Only in this case there wasn't even an attempt at an ending.

She Dies Tomorrow (2020), Directed by Amy Seimetz.

She Dies Tomorrow is the sophmore film from Amy Seimetz that's stylised visuals result in it feeling often times weightless and lacking density.

Seimetz's use of visual story telling here is impeccable, from the neon colours representing the central cursed idea, to the poignant lighting sparsley used, conveying terror when it is - the cinematography and visuals are by far the standout here; along with the sharp editing that keeps the pace on this albeit short film as it is, at a fluid pace throughout.

However, as much as I enjoyed this - mostly for its intriguing premise - unfortuantely, the execution just isn't fully there. Sitting at just one hour and 25 minutes, She Dies Tomorrow just didn't feel like there was enough meat on the bones; we get introduced to such an array of characters, yet spend such little time with any them to really understand who they are. As the film progresses, characters keep getting introduced but our interest in them fades more and more with every new addition. Because of this, the film begins to feel weightless.

The themes of mental health and the literal fear of death are poignant and relevant here, giving us something to relate to but because of our absence of any real main character, Seimetz almost throws the themes out there and hopes something will stick with audiences - and like most 'deep' films, its up to interpretation. This ambiguity some will like, adding to repeat viewings but not me, this comes across as unintentional and a cop-out for actually crafting an organised and cohesive film.

The acting throughout is stellar across the board, I just wish the cast had more to play with in their characters.

This feels like a common case of style over substance.

This movie has an interesting premise. Beginning of the movie was good, but later on it lost its charm. Simply because there were never introduced the rules of what was happening. Filmmakers probably wanted it to be ambiguous, but it came across as not thought through. There is quite good buildup for the mystery of "dying tomorrow", but it has no payoff. The ideas that filmmakers are presenting to viewers aren't original or too much of thought provoking material. Overall, I was disappointed. Premise, cast, good reviews from critics - it was all for nothing in the end.

It's almost funny, because this movie is clearly clumsily trying to say something about how people waste their lives living in fear and how they should really stop with all their boring vapid hipster nonsense and go out and really live.

and yet...here is this boring vapid hipster excuse for a movie trying to waste part of my life with its cheap stoned high school kid philosophy, when I could be doing something more fulfilling.

Well, congratulations movie, you win. I'm turning this off to do something else. MISSION ACCOMPLISHED?

What if a sense of impending doom was transmittable? There. I just saved you 85 minutes.

There are no characters you care about, there aren't any deep interesting conversations, there aren't any events that take place. The promise of an atmosphere glimmers occasionally but nothing comes of it.

I think the cinematography was trying to be artsy but it came of as lazy. The main music choice that plays on repeat countless times is frankly absurd for a serious horror movie in 2020. However, that in addition to the editing, which had a downright comedic timing, make me think this is supposed to be a dark comedy. Either way it fails.

A short movie stretched to its absolute limits to get to feature length.