She Never Died

She Never Died is the sequel to the Henry Rollins starer He Never Died, a visceral crime thriller set like a modern day grungy Highlander, She Never Died while not being as well produced as part 1 is still a decent follow up, the lead actress is good in a rather a fierce role, and the violence, blood & practical effects are very grind house and practical which i love, a decent 1 time watch for sure.

Apparently this is a follow up to a movie called He Never Died starring Henry Rollins, as a fan of him I'd like to watch that despite me thinking "She" is a pile of garbage. Off the record an ageing cop investigates a human trafficking gang, they also make snuff and torture movies. He is aided by a female hobo called Lacey, she has superhuman strength, is immortal and has an appetite for eating human fingers! They are joined by one of the gang's victims, a young woman whose purpose is to inject some comedy into the messy plot. At the end it goes all Biblical Apocalypse. Despite no back story I thought the Lacey character was quite cool ("She's a real scary person that Lacey", one character says). Sadly everything else is poor - bad acting, terrible dialogue, messy plot, a typical B minus movie.

He Never Died was made a great thriller by Henry Rollins smart ass performance. Olunike Adeliyi is watchable but lacks the charisma of Rollins. The first film had comic relief moments which are lacking in the follow up. A series was planned but never happened. I was looking forward to Henry keeping the story going much like the John Wick movies. Biblical references are used without a proper context. The final few minutes are not well done but overall She Never Died is watchable.

A couple years ago "He Never Died" 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 "sister" sequel is in works which certainly got me a little excited, and Jason Krawczyk returning to write was good news as well. And so, "She Never Died" 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.

"She Never Died" is a much more contained and narrow experience as compared to its "brother" 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 "She Never Died" 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 that'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 should've co-existed with the franchise-defining themes from "He Never Died" 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. "She Never Died" is an entertaining indie horror, carried on the shoulders of good performances, violent action and consistent pacing, but, carrying the name it does, it's simply underwhelming. Let me put it this way - it lost more than it gained, if compared to its spiritual predecessor.

I believe "She Never Died" 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, it's barely justified and simply lesser than the first movie. My rating: 5/10.

Written by Jason Krawczyk, the writer behind the cult low-budget indie HE NEVER DIED, this almost-maybe sequel is a swing and a miss. First it lacks the charm and intensity that Rollins imbued into the original character. Plus, it pretty much checks all the boxes for the tell-tales of an extreme low-budget effort -- musky lighting, very few actors, scenes that go on way too long, really bad music that just fills space, etc.