She Dies Tomorrow – A One-Sided Paranoia Feature

It’s quite funny to observe how all stories about mass death in the distant future made before the pandemic are no longer science fiction, and questionably easy to buy into. This is one of the many reasons that She Dies Tomorrow, Amy Seimetz’ directorial followup to Sun Don’t Shine, has gained a lot of traction, resulting in a selection for this year’s since-cancelled SXSW Film Festival. While the buzz it’s received for touching upon very current worldwide fears and it’s high level of creativity are certainly justified, this is a film that works better alongside strong audience reactions – which isn’t the way it resonated with this reviewer.

That’s not to say that there’s wasn’t anything great about She Dies Tomorrow though! For starters, how Seimetz builds and structures her story here is quite intriguing. The way the main character of Amy (Shiel) sinks into her fear and questions her fate is done in a way unlike many films in recent memory. Meanwhile, the dialogue that follows this fear was also quite sharp. Seimetz normalizes these concepts for this world in a manner that isn’t too far from ours, further emphasizing the most captivating aspects of the film.

It’s also quite easily said that Seimetz has constructed She Dies Tomorrow in a way that perfectly fits in the new wave of elevated indie horror. The fact that she sacrifices the usual various jump and supernatural scares in favor of something much more real – anxiety and mental health – is quite commendable. Contributing to this atmosphere were the eerie aesthetic. the orchestral music choices, the neon soaked set pieces, and Sheil’s haunting performance all work together to help build up the tensity.

Although there was a lot of good to be had here, there were still certain obstacles that created a disconnect from fully getting immersed into this world – certainly obstacles of the subjective nature, but obstacles nonetheless. To begin, She Dies Tomorrow doesn’t feel as scary as it should, and this is largely a problem with the way the film was structured. As characters continue to share their concern about their fate, a disparity seemingly develops between that anxiety and the audience. It’s certainly a brilliant concept but also one that may alienate some viewers. Viewers are never truly convinced that these fears are genuine, and they just feel arbitrary. This problem begins quite early in the film therefore one may hope that as the story unravels, the film was justify having this fear as well. However, this moments never happened. While it’s disappointing to say, it’s just difficult to become immersed into horror that’s fully observational and one-sided.

In the end, it’s so tough to talk about She Dies Tomorrow from a middling perspective, because it feels genuinely frustrating to be disappointed by it. Though there’s so much to love, admire and be inspired by conceptually and technically, it’s also hard to dismiss those factors when critiquing it. One can’t help but just wish it better immersed viewers into its paranoia, which unfortunately feels too one-sided to be fully immersed in.

still courtesy of Elevation Pictures

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