‘She Dies Tomorrow’ Will Validate Your Pandemic Anxiety

If you’re coping just fine in quarantine, I wouldn’t recommend watching Amy Seimetz‘s new movie, She Dies Tomorrow. The dreamy psychological thriller, now available to stream on demand, proposes that fear is contagious. It supports that thesis with 84-minutes of chill-inducing evidence. Put another way: You will not have a good time watching this movie. You will feel the prickle of anxiety creep down your spine. You’ll be transported back to the last time you lay frozen in bed, convinced someone had just broken into your home, but unable to muster the courage to get up and check.

But if you, like many of us, have been having a not-so-great time with the COVID-19 pandemic—or any other hardships that may be contributing to that quiet but persistent panic—then She Dies Tomorrow is a strange comfort. It’s validating. Most of the time, we’d rather ignore the uncomfortable feelings She Dies Tomorrow unpacks, but if you stick with the film through the end, you’ll arrive at a place of community and acceptance.

The first 30 minutes are so are devoted to Amy (Kate Lyn Sheil), who’s just purchased a new home, but doesn’t seem very happy about it. When Amy’s concerned friend Jane (Jane Adams) drops by, we learn that Kate is an alcoholic who has just relapsed, which is why—Jane assumes—she is suddenly paranoid that she is going to die tomorrow.

All of that is told in a way that is abstract and hard to “get.” If you’re tempted to give up and just rewatch New Girl yet again, I encourage you to get to the 45-minute mark, at least. Things start to click into place when Jane catches the “I’m going to die tomorrow” bug. Unable to get Kate’s words out of her head, she shows up—shaking with fear and in nothing but pajamas—at a party for her sister-in-law’s birthday. She tells her husband (Chris Messina) and everyone there what Kate told her: She is going to die tomorrow. Though they brush her off at first, it isn’t long before everyone is convinced. They are all going to die tomorrow.

The funny thing is, once everyone gets on board with the collective panic attack, my own anxiety as the viewer eased. Misery loves company, I guess. Seimetz—an actor, writer, director and producer who last year starred in Pet Semetary and in 2012 directed the award-winning indie thriller Sun Don’t Shine—took the isolating experience of fear and made it a shared pain. Even the doctor that Jane visits (played by Josh Lucas, who makes the most out of a short scene), a professional who we expect to keep his cool at all times, succumbs to the overwhelming dread.

She Dies Tomorrow is not quite a horror film. We never actually witness the big bad arrive. But the performances of anxiety—especially in the case of Adams, who strikes just the right balance of vulnerable and unhinged during her unraveling—are more horrific than any monster. It’s a beautiful and upsetting depiction of fear. Of course, there is the unintentional metaphor for COVID-19. A highly contagious, invisible, and fatal disease that everyone you come in contact with catches? That’s a little too on the nose.

Some may want to avoid the film during these relevant, turbulent times, but I found it to be something of a balm. She Dies Tomorrow is anxiety-inducing, sure, but it’s also validating. It’s probably not healthy to have everyone and their cousin paralyzed by fear in the middle of the pandemic. But doesn’t it make you feel a teensy bit better to know your friends probably had that Sunday night panic attack right along with you?

Where to watch She Dies Tomorrow