Lacey, a socially detached loner is cursed with immortality and a never-ending tedium of existence. In her attempts to keep her compulsions in check, she seeks out the darkest souls …

Written by the first installment’s writer/director Jason Krawczyk, She Never Died is instead directed by Audrey Cummings (Darken and Darken the tv series). It is not quite a horror movie or thriller but is a very dark superhero movie that has a complex, female-lead narrative and graphic displays of gore. This socially conscious crime-drama/action film is a thrill ride for the senses with some jaw-dropping violence as heads roll and eyes pop at the hands of its formidable heroine.

In She Never Died, hard-nosed detective Charlie Godfrey (Peter MacNeill) is looking for a man named Terrance (Noah Dalton Danby), who he believes kidnapped his daughter years ago as part of his business of producing torture videos for profit. Turns out that Lillith aka Lacey (Olunike Adeliyi) is on the lookout for the very same man, the difference is that Lacey is an immortal maneater who uses her strength to stop society’s dregs. When Detective Godfrey and Lacey cross paths at one of her dark web justice takedowns, instead of arresting her, he proposes that they combine forces in order to find and put an end to Terrance. During one of Lacey and Godfrey’s coordinated busts, Lacey saves Suzzie (Kiana Madeira) from a live-stream torture broadcast, a dark web activity orchestrated by Terrance for audience payouts; lonely and self-destructive Suzzie is compelled to follow Lacey, to whom she now owes her life. Cleaning up the crime scene of Lacey’s latest save, Detective Godfrey runs into Terrance but ends up being caught in he and his sister Meredith’s (Michelle Nolden) crime web, himself. Lacey and Suzzie set out to save Godfrey, but become precariously entwined in Terrance’s dark web net as well; they must meet Terrance’s violence with violence in one crazy showdown.

Honestly, I am coming into this franchise blind. She Never Died is a follow-up companion-piece to the 2015 hit feature He Never Died, which was also about a cannibalistic community-warrior, but conversely, She Never Died does not star the original cast and the protagonist in this film, obviously, is instead a woman. In building the universe around this character, director Audrey Cummings uses off-kilter Dutch angles, the meaningful camera zooms, and interesting transitions, adding to the exciting pacing of this film. The atmosphere is dark in both lighting and the content of nefarious dealings in its dark web universe. It is a gritty super-antihero film, reminiscent of The Watchmen (2009) or James Gunn’s Super in the vein of dark superhero movies; funny that I can’t think of any female-lead ones, but now I can.

To me, She Never Died is a pretty badass film, full of uncompromising female characters. Lacey skulks through each scene like a zombie with a mission; not just a mindless killer, but one with purpose, humor and wit, and quite the appetite for the fleshy fingers of bad guys. It is not often that a woman gets to play the strong and silent type — in horror films, the woman is usually the victim even if she is the final girl, however, in She Never Dies, Olunike Adeliyi as Lacey is all-at-once feminine, strong, brave, and devoid of a male gaze. Peter MacNeill playing Detective Godfrey has the look of a Lethal Weapon Danny Glover constantly saying ‘I’m too old for this shit’, but with more depth and melancholy portraying his character’s depressing background. The only aspect of the narrative that was a little hard to pick up on was Lacey’s stake in the game — while Godfrey’s is clearly outlined in the disappearance and death of his daughter at the hands of Terrance, with all of the bad guys in the world it is not exactly laid out why Lacey focuses in on this particular crime syndicate, but otherwise, the movie is a well-written, fun, assassin-with-a-dog movie that audiences seem to love nowadays.

Some people may be tired of representation in film, and are offended and uncomfortable when main characters do not reflect every aspect of themselves — it is an unfortunate sentiment of current times. Everyone should be able to see themselves in any hero, despite their gender or the color that their skin happens to be; because not all heroes look the same. She Never Died may fall into the socially conscious category, but what’s really important is that it is a great film. I loved the ending and how it alludes to some background about Lacey being Lillith, the first woman, adding to the complexity of her character and the potential for this storyline to turn into yet more films. I am excited to see what comes of this franchise, especially if it is a continuation of Lillith/Lacey and friends dealing with an impending apocalypse.