He Never Died

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Movie
German title He Never Died
Original title He Never Died
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 2015
length 97 minutes
Age rating FSK 18
Rod
Director Jason Krawczyk
script Jason Krawczyk
production Zach Hagen ,
Adrienne Stern
music James Mark Stewart
camera Eric Billman
cut James Bredin
occupation

He Never Died is an American horror comedy from 2015 . Jason Krawczyk directed and wrote the screenplay. In 2019 the successor She Never Died was released.

action

The outsider Jack spends most of his days sleeping, watching TV and playing bingo. He reduces his social contacts to a minimum so as not to fall into old, violent patterns. Jack is immortal and has walked the earth for thousands of years, showing cannibalistic behavior. He also has two long vertical scars on his back, which look as if there used to be two huge angel wings at this point.

After one of his weekly meetings with Jeremy, a hospital intern who supplies him with blood, gangsters Short and Steve go to his apartment. They believe he could reveal Jeremy's whereabouts to them and try to force him to do it. Jack can, however, easily beat her up and throw her out of the apartment. Even a bullet from a fired pistol of these two crooks, through which Jack sustains a serious injury to his right hand, cannot defeat him, even if Jack then bleeds profusely from the palm like a crucified Jesus . When he wants to go back to sleep, a call from his ex-girlfriend Gillian disrupts his daily routine. She informs him that Andrea, their 19-year-old daughter, whose existence Jack was previously completely unknown, wanted to contact him that morning. Now Andrea is sitting in a bar and Gillian asks Jack to pick her up so that she doesn't go home drunk. Jack finds Andrea and lets her spend the night with him.

The next day he wants to meet Jeremy again and watches as the two gangsters kidnap the intern. Jack chases them, beats up the kidnappers again and frees the seriously injured Jeremy. In revenge, they mix Jack in his favorite dinner drink in the evening and drown him in the sea. However, Jack walks out of the water, rips open Shorts throat with his bare hands and eats it. Worried that he could do the same to Andrea, he throws her out of the apartment. Jack succumbs to his thirst for blood again and finds victims in his neighbors and in petty criminals on the street. In the course of the action, a silent, old man with a goatee appears to him several times, whom no one except Jack can see.

Finally the gangsters kidnap his daughter and lie in wait for him in the diner with reinforcements. Jack kills almost the entire gang and offers the waitress Cara a fortune to help him free his daughter. She finds out that Jack is really the biblical character Cain , doomed to walk the earth forever. She drives him to the gang boss Alex's club, where Jack commits another massacre. He beats up Alex and breaks his leg. In the end, he decides to spare Alex and take his daughter to the hospital.

production

The film premiered on March 17, 2015 at the South by Southwest Film Festival . It was released worldwide as video-on-demand on March 18, 2016.

Even during production, plans were made to expand Rollins' role in a miniseries.

reception

The film was received mostly positively. Critics particularly praise Rollins' portrayal of the stoic cannibal. Rob Staeger was surprised how much humor Rollins brings into his first leading role. Noel Murray writes that Rollins' innate charisma makes up for what the film lacks in lively supporting roles and rich storyline.

In addition, it is noticeable that due to the low budget of the indie production , savings had to be made in some areas. Marcel Demuth writes: “This is particularly noticeable in the stage design and backdrops, which were implemented more appropriately and are reminiscent of TV goods, but at least underline the dark tone of the strip. But that's not particularly bad, the focus is anyway on the bizarre characters who behave so weird in HE NEVER DIED that you could think they came from a comic. "

Awards

Henry Rollins was nominated for Best Actor and Kate Greenhouse for Best Supporting Role at the 2016 Fangoria Chainsaw Awards.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Certificate of release for He Never Died . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry (PDF). Template: FSK / maintenance / type set and Par. 1 longer than 4 characters
  2. He Never Died. In: uNoGS. Retrieved January 24, 2020 .
  3. Henry Rollins to Star in Comedy-Horror Miniseries 'He Never Died'. In: Variety. October 20, 2014, accessed September 1, 2016 .
  4. Q&A: Writer / Director Jason Krawczyk on Wrangling Rollins for “HE NEVER DIED”. In: Fangoria. December 17, 2015, archived from the original on September 2, 2016 ; accessed on September 1, 2016 .
  5. ^ Rob Staeger: Henry Rollins Gets His Own Tough and Hilarious 'Taken' in 'He Never Died'. In: Voice. December 15, 2015, accessed September 1, 2016 .
  6. Noel Murray: Henry Rollins brings life to horror-noir 'He Never Died'. In: Los Angeles Times. December 17, 2015, accessed September 1, 2016 .
  7. Marcel Demuth: Film review: "He Never Died" (2015). In: Filmchecker. Retrieved September 1, 2016 .