Movie Review: 'She Dies Tomorrow' is a Stunner

Imagine The Ring, or The Grudge or some other supernatural horror movie minus some goofy, black and white, glitchy, villain covered in goo. That’s kind of what you get with the new horror movie She Dies Tomorrow. Actress turned writer-director, Amy Seimetz, has crafted a horror movie without a villain. She Dies Tomorrow has blood and death and an eerie supernatural atmosphere but none of the other traditional trappings of a horror movie and it feels fresher for that reason.

She Dies Tomorrow features a stellar ensemble cast that begins with Kate Lyn Shell as Amy. We meet Amy late one evening as she is getting quite drunk. Amy is deeply haunted, her manner is deeply distressed, her eyes are sunken and listless. Amy wanders around her suburban Los Angeles apartment listening to classical music and mumbling in a way we can’t quite make out.

We do hear Amy call her friend, Jane (Jane Adams) and ask her to come over. Jane is busy and distracted and doesn’t appear to catch on to her friend’s despair. Still, later on, Jane does appear and what accounts for our plot kicks in. We find Amy climbing the walls behind her apartment, careless of the vines and thick bushes, she sits precariously on a weedy precipice with a bottle of wine.

Jane manages to get Amy off the wall but Jane is at a loss to offer any real aid to her friend. Amy has a history of addiction and her being remarkably drunk is a sign to Jane that there truly isn’t much more she can do here. Amy isn’t helping matters. The only thing Amy will say is that she’s going to die. Jane logically replies that we’re all going to die one day but Amy replies that she is going to die tomorrow.

Naturally, Jane chalks this up to her friend being in a depressed and rather morbid state and she decides to just let her sleep it off, they can talk tomorrow. That’s the plan anyway until Jane herself is suddenly overcome with despair. Jane tries to call Amy but gets no answer. One sudden, dreadful, despairing thought now overwhelms Jane, “I am going to die tomorrow.” Somehow, whatever has afflicted Amy is now afflicting Jane.

She Dies Tomorrow is a revelation. Writer-Director Amy Seimetz has crafted a horror movie that brims with dread energy driven by a cast that is remarkable at communicating that dread. Chris Messina, Katie Aselton, Tunde Adebimpe and Jennifer Lee round out the main cast and each is superb in their own way. I won’t spoil anything by telling you what takes place. I will only say that the way Seimetz relies on her actors' manner rather than her script is a refreshing approach.

Each member of this ensemble cast gets the chance to shine in demonstrating horrific dread and existential terror and it’s awesome to experience. Seimetz never wastes a moment on trying to explain or ex-posit what is occurring and that feeling of being unmoored by traditional plot elements is invigorating. She Dies Tomorrow feels alive and free from the binds of horror tradition simply by eliminating expository dialogue in favor of character beats and atmosphere.

Like so few directors these days, Seimetz trusts the audience to follow along without her holding your hand or using gimmicks to reassure you such as stock characters or all encompassing explanations. This allows She Dies Tomorrow to roam free in a unique and creepy visual realm of strange colors and a dread atmosphere akin to being lost in a thick dark fog, wide awake and unconnected from the familiar.

I adore She Dies Tomorrow. This movie feels fresh and alive in ways that so few movies are in this day and age. It all proceeds from a very simple idea, a curse horror movie where the curse is not embodied by anything or anyone. No videotapes or goo covered, Asian children. No cursed cell phones or video games. You have no idea what this or what it aims to do and by extension you're thrown into the same chaotic despair that overcomes our main characters.

She Dies Tomorrow is, thus far, my favorite movie of 2020.