Although he is a busy guy, it is a rare treat to get to see the mighty Henry Rollins on screen. If you are one of my younger readers and have never heard of Henry Rollins or listened to Black Flag, then you need to sue your parents in open court for punitive damages. Seriously, call Child Protective Services and get new parents. If you are a parent reading this and haven’t blasted Slip it In or My War to your life destroying food to poop converter, then you are in danger of raising a mediocre child.
Now that that’s settled, let’s take a look at He Never Died, a film starring Henry Rollins about a man who has given up on life, but somehow cannot ever die. This movie is well written and the story is interesting, but Rollins is the real reason He Never Died is worth watching. Rollins’ character, Jack, starts out as a man who spends all day sleeping and generally not giving a single fuck about anyone or anything. Jack silently broods while doing his best to cage some long dormant beast growling within him. His uneasy balance is upset when he suddenly finds out that he has a daughter (played by Jordan Todosey) who proceeds to invade his well regimented life. The way I’m describing it sounds like the beginning of one of those corny Lifetime made for TV movies, but I promise you a motion picture that is rife with blood soaked pain and suffering. The more Jack gets forced into caring about his life again, the more he has to snap, crackle, and pop the soft fragile bodies of any human in his way.
(I guess kids have a really special way of screwing up your chi)
The level of intensity required for this kind of film could only be offered by Rollins. Although the story and production of the film is solid, this whole film might have been in danger of the 5 dollar Walmart DVD bin without Rollins’ performance. Everything Rollins does is on purpose and he wastes no extra energy on nuance or superfluous actions, his performance is pure will and it creates a really palpable tension inside his character. He battles between the man he wants to be and the man that he really is.
(Even BINGO is a matter of life and death)
I don’t want to give away too much about He Never Dies, all I can say is that you should check it out. You will cringe at the gore, you will hide your face from the screen at times and a few seconds later, you will laugh at its dry and dark humor. Henry Rollins is hypnotic in his performance and you will have a lot of fun watching his clean cut ordered life descend into a bone crunching nightmare. He Never Died slashed its way to my top picks for horror this year. Watch it!
