She Never Died (2019)

She Never Died: Directed by Audrey Cummings. With Olunike Adeliyi, Peter MacNeill, Kiana Madeira, Michelle Nolden. When a girl goes missing, a woman with a mysterious past tracks down the people responsible.

“A couple years ago u0026quot;He Never Diedu0026quot; pleasantly surprised me, it was an unexpectedly funny, highly entertaining and conceptually interesting thriller with heavy shades of horror and comedy. Not too long after I noticed a so-called u0026quot;sisteru0026quot; sequel is in works which certainly got me a little excited, and Jason Krawczyk returning to write was good news as well. And so, u0026quot;She Never Diedu0026quot; stands on its own as an entertaining baddie flick, but the intriguing concepts have mostly left the stage, and as far as sequels go, this one adds little to nothing to the universe, ideas and mythos presented in the first movie.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eu0026quot;She Never Diedu0026quot; is a much more contained and narrow experience as compared to its u0026quot;brotheru0026quot; prequel, both regarding the plot, the characters and the production budget. A tough and mysterious woman, a fierce baddie, the single biggest strength of this movie, the much-praised feminine side of this film, main protagonist and heroine – Lacey – fights her daily demons and looks to bring down criminals hurting women. One could say u0026quot;She Never Diedu0026quot; is a vigilante flick. Olunike Adeliyi feels organic and confident, putting up a top tier performance as the fallen angel. Then there are a couple more characters, a rather primitive plot thatu0026#39;s swimming to its inevitable conclusion, and… no expansion of the mystery presented, no paths to right or left from the main story road, nothing of what I truly hoped to see or feel. A rather vague and simplistic – as compared to better movies including this theme – exploration of female trauma is not a great substitute, because instead it shouldu0026#39;ve co-existed with the franchise-defining themes from u0026quot;He Never Diedu0026quot; that were lost here. They managed to keep notions of the same kind of humor, but to call it darkly (actually) funny would be a bit of a stretch. u0026quot;She Never Diedu0026quot; is an entertaining indie horror, carried on the shoulders of good performances, violent action and consistent pacing, but, carrying the name it does, itu0026#39;s simply underwhelming. Let me put it this way – it lost more than it gained, if compared to its spiritual predecessor.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eI believe u0026quot;She Never Diedu0026quot; is an arguably above average indie horror offering, entertaining enough throughout in all the best B movie traditions, also featuring quality performance(s), but… I also believe that, as a sequel, itu0026#39;s barely justified and simply lesser than the first movie. My rating: 5/10.”