'She Never Died' - Movie Review

There was a film in 2015 called "He Never Died," starring Henry Rollins as Cain. Yes, the biblical figure, and it's set in the modern day. Evidently it was the intention of the director of that movie, Jason Krawczyk, to expand that universe. Wikipedia says of this movie that it "is intended as a follow up sister-sequel to ... 'He Never Died.'" I loved "He Never Died," so I tracked this one down. Our main character is Lacey (Olunike Adeliyi), who is also grumpy in the mornings (like Cain), wants to eat human flesh (just as Cain was cursed to do), and is unkillable (same as Cain).

We first meet her as a shadowy figure rescuing a woman who was apparently about to be kidnapped (it had immediately been established that a lot of women were going missing in this city). Except that the rescue seems somewhat incidental to the mayhem she inflicts on the kidnappers, which seems to be the main point.

When we first meet her, she's homeless. She's also not very subtle, and crosses paths with an aging police detective who isn't overly concerned that she eats people so long as she eats the ones he wants, and he gives her a place to stay. And that leads to her "rescuing" another girl, who is somewhere between terrified and grateful - and insists on hanging around with her.

Wikipedia calls this a "horror comedy." There's a bit of comedy, black as midnight. Lacey has only two moods: emotionless calm mixed with slight annoyance and hungry killing rage (I kept thinking "you wouldn't like me when I'm angry," which kind of changed the tone ...). This one is a bit gorier than the previous one. I found Rollins' Cain significantly more appealing than Adeliyi's character - I think because Cain talks more, and we know more about him so it's possible to have some sympathy for him. He also makes an effort not to eat people. Lacey barely talks at all, and the revelation of her true identity is left for the end of the film so we don't get the chance to put it in context with her character as we get to know her (not that we ever do). And she eats drug users not because it's morally better, but because they taste better. But at the end of the movie we're supposed to like her? I liked Cain - I didn't want to be anywhere near him, but I felt like I had some understanding of him and he had a moral compass. Lacey has none.

This movie would make less sense if you hadn't seen the previous movie. And their attempt to set up another sequel hints you should see both, but I wouldn't hold your breath for that sequel. I'm also against the critics on this one: I like the previous one better.

A couple small footnotes: this is a Canadian movie, filmed in North Bay. And Lacey's not a canonical Biblical character, more of a mythological one.