Vertical Entertainment released He Never Died on 18 December 2015. It premiered in March at SXSW, which is a big deal.
I love this film. I put it on a lot when I feel that the justice is absent in the world. So I put it on a lot these days!
Writer-director Jason Krawczyk has a sly and dark sense of humor. And Henry Rollins in the lead plays it perfectly. But if you don’t pay attention, you can miss this. I recommended the film to a friend and she told me she shut it off after 10 minutes. I said, “You didn’t pay attention, did you?” She admitted she didn’t and had totally missed the humor. She put it on again and loved it.
It got good reviews — especially from people in the psychotronic community. But Matt Donato at We Got This Covered did not disappoint:
Herein lies the problem – can you really get excited about a character who can’t seem to die? No matter how many times Jack is shot, tortured, or thrown in a river, he always comes back meaner and badder than before.
I think video games have melted the minds of many people. True, Jack can’t die. That is his biggest problem! And despite not being able to die, he feels pain. That is his second biggest problem! That is the point of my favorite line in the film, “I have pliers in my head. It hurts.”
If you haven’t seen He Never Died, you owe it to yourself. There just isn’t much to say about it. It’s pure joy. Unfortunately, I can only embed a copy from DailyMotion. You can also watch it for free (with a library card) on Hoopla. Or, you can get the DVD (as I have). Sadly, the producers have never released it properly. Not that they need to. It isn’t a film you need to learn about. Just watch and enjoy.
Here is a free copy:
Jason Krawczyk also directed The Briefcase, which is a very fun film. And I now see that he released another film last year (which I haven’t seen), Don’t Mess With Grandma.
He Never Died (2015) poster via Wikipedia under Fair Use.
