By Gabby Foor
When my father shaved his moustache for the first time when I was a child, I was told I didn’t have the best reaction. His face had changed and the familiar black line above his smile was gone, much to my young heart’s distress. After that reaction, he never did it again. Jack Dignan’s debut feature film After She Died is an inventive psychological and supernatural thriller based on a parent’s façade and how we cling to the images of loved ones. Once we’ve lost someone we love, it’s to be expected you see reminders of them everywhere. The problem with this scenario is that likely when someone’s gone you never expect to see them again, or anyone that could pass as their doppelganger, for that matter. Unnerving and twisted, After She Died takes a fresh take on grief and all the terrors that go with it.
We begin with Jen (Liliana Ritchie), a graduating high school student who is listening to what is a particularly venomous bout between her parents John (Paul Talbot) and Isabel (Vanessa Madrid). In the wake of the fight, Isabel goes to Jen and explains why she stays in her difficult marriage, conversing gently in Spanish with her daughter, backlit by cold blue tones with the ladies lit in a warm, bold orange. Isabel gives Jen a necklace, a family heirloom, to always have a piece of her mother nearby. We quickly cut away and it’s clear that Isabel has passed in some tragic fashion, leaving her family to mourn on graduation day – thanks to Jen’s father who scheduled the burial on the same day, it appears.
On a bright day later that week, as Jen ponders her friends moving on with their lives out of town, wildfires burning with smoke clouding the horizon, Jen thinks of her father, a firefighter, and worries for his safety. Luckily, he is unharmed after his time in the fire and shortly afterwards, brings home his new girlfriend, Florence. With her mother not even cold, Jen races to hug Florence but then realizes the sick reality that she only looks exactly like her mother, and she is still just a stranger that her father intends to quickly move in on account of the fire damage. An awkward dinner trying to draw parallels between Jen and Florence fails to win Jen over, and Florence, prompted by her watch alarm, leaves the table shortly after; she’s then seen bleeding from her nose and eye in the bathroom. Making the effort however, Jen offers to volunteer at the same place as Florence to try and bond with her, where it is revealed she also speaks Spanish. A friend, Louis (Adam Golledge), is struck immediately by Florence’s appearance and tries to approach Jen, but after a mishap with the volunteer check-in and an injury to a staff member, Florence is sent running towards the smoking woods, and the plot begins to unravel.
The use of smoke and beautifully soft piano music from Andrew Back reminded me in some ways of Silent Hill in the beginning act, its haze and tell-tale piano gently chiming in the background of the story of a wounded family. But this movie is altogether something different. With a low budget, this movie leans into its strength with a beautiful score and bold lighting. Interesting edits of memory or supernatural visions cut through scenes and potentially otherworldly forces aren’t presented in CGI, but masked flesh and blood for a more corporeal haunting. The cast is also fully game for their roles, especially Madrid, pulling double duty. This morbid doppelganger action only gets more intense as the being spends longer with the family, becoming more desperate and manipulative, prying at their grief, inflicting pain. Supernatural and psychological blend seamlessly as this movie twists and turns you down a path towards truth. The concept is quite interesting, the answers even more so, and while you may be able to conjure theories of what is happening after the first introduction to a strong supernatural entity, the execution is done colorfully and manically as the second half of the film burns bright with so many possibilities for each character.
Dignan pulls off his debut with confidence, no doubt, with a score and imagery that’s easy to get lost in. The movie is a pleasurable visual experience, I’ll say, and with limited effects I was struck by the quality of some of the wild images and some of the violence and gore that would usually be done with less care and more money. This tightly budgeted piece does so much well with a unique concept, and while they leave many breadcrumbs along the way to guide you, After She Died is a winding road you need to follow closely for a possibly divisive ending I didn’t expect. This film is certain of itself, set in its tone, and visually commanding. I may have floundered during the first half with the pace of this film and some scenes and reactions that felt misplaced. However, it was certainly worth the watch for a fresh horror concept done well by a fresh director with apparent talent and definitive style. All told, this presentation of Dignan’s work is a beautiful, messy treat with heavy hitting themes throughout. Just don’t worry if by the end you’re seeing doubles.
After She Died is now available worldwide on VOD, Tubi and DVD/Blu-Ray.