SHE NEVER DIED – Directed by Audrey Cummings – Written by Jason Krawczyk – SPOILERS

She (Olunike Adeliyi) is immortal, but not a vampire although she does manage to impale someone in the course of things. She eats people, but does not drink blood, and “technically” does not eat meat. (That didn’t come out quite the way it should have.) The only thing other than people she is seen to eat is oatmeal, which is her standard order at the diner she frequents. She drinks tea, and goes by the name Lacey.

Lacey’s victims are always male, and are always people operating outside the law (so they won’t be missed). The first thing we see her do is interrupt the abduction of a woman. The attacker was destined to be her next meal, so saving the woman was incidental. Next she (perhaps accidentally) rescues a dog, taking a bullet in the head in the process. Bullets only penetrate a short way into Lacey’s body, and that might have something to do with density. A couple of bad guys trying to abduct her about halfway through the film discover that she is inordinately heavy. She weighs 257 lbs, but looks like she weighs half that. Lacey looks human, but given her diet, rapid healing abilities, and body mass, she might not be entirely human.

Revealing Lacey’s true name would be too spoilery. This film is not so much a sequel to HE NEVER DIED (2015) as it is a second, separate tale placed in the same universe, and there are some subtle connections between the two. Lacey has scars similar to those of Jack, the central character in the first movie (which was written and directed by Jason Krawczyk, who also wrote this one). Noah Danby‘s character Terrance wears a pork pie hat, as did the man with a goatee who appeared to Jack in in the other movie.

Police Detective Godfrey (Peter MacNeill), looks for all the world like a P.I., and kind of operates like one. Godfrey comes into Lacey’s life when (by chance) it turns out he is surveilling one of the dudes she plans to eat. When he discovers what she does, a symbiotic relationship develops between the two. Godfrey allows her to live in a crappy apartment he just happens to own. (She is homeless at the start of the film, and needs a fridge to store body parts.) In exchange she agrees to kill those on his list of people whom he cannot arrest but wants to take off the street, but only after getting his permission to eat them.

Lacey happens upon Suzzie (Kiana Madeira) who is handcuffed to a bed and about to be victimized in some unspecified manner by two of the people on Godfrey’s list. When Suzzie gets over being terrified, Lacey releases her and she ends up spending the night at Lacey’s place, something Lacey doesn’t think this is a particularly good idea. This leads to a very good scene where a very hungry Lacey barely manages to restrain herself from consuming the sleeping Suzzie. Apparently she is able to eat females, but has simply decided not to. (No double meaning intended.)

The entire cast is excellent, but the most exceptional performance comes from Madeira in a role completely different from any other character she has played, and Michelle Nolden is both creepy and very funny as seedy businesswoman Meredith. (She is creepy enough to make it feel a bit uncomfortable to find her humourous.) In the film’s most memorable scene. Meredith takes on Lacey in a rooftop wrestling match. (Stunt doubles involved are Dajon Durant and Ivett Gonda.)

The characters in the first film might someday encounter the people in the second one, but they haven’t (yet). This story ends with a forecast of the apocalypse, and indirect references to biblical verse, all of which seem designed to set up a third film (which so far as can be determined, is not in the works right now). In perhaps the movie’s most optimistic moment, that dog Lacey saved at the start of things shows up on her doorstep at the end, and she invites him inside.

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SHE NEVER DIED can be streamed on Tubi.