This Underrated Vampire Dark Comedy is Streaming on Tubi

Filmmakers constantly find new and interesting ways to expand the lore around vampires, nearly 130 years after the monsters were first popularized by Bram Stoker. Part of the fun in watching a new vampire movie is seeing how strictly they stick to the tropes, and how far they're willing to bend the rules in service of the story and subverting expectations. There's the classical renditions like Bram Stoker's Dracula, unconventional spins on the mythology like the magic-leaning hive-mind collective in Sinners, or glam cinematic vamps like The Lost Boys. However, currently on Tubi is the emerging cult classic about the burden of living...(ahem)... forever as a vampire, which strips away almost everything except the desire to kill and desire for blood — 2015's He Never Died.

Directed by Jason Krawczyk, the film follows Jack (Henry Rollins), a self-isolating individual who divides his time between sleeping in his apartment, bingo, and meals at a diner where his regular waitress, Cara (Kate Greenhouse) makes one-sided attempts at conversation. The secret that Jack is hiding is his insatiable craving for blood and flesh, and an ability to heal from any wounds inflicted on him, resulting in his being immortal. His attempts to keep to himself are hindered when his previously unknown daughter, Andrea (Jordan Todosey), shows up, and coincidentally, some mobsters start to hinder his day-to-day life (as far as Jack is concerned).

"It's Hard to Live When You Can't Die"

He Never Died takes the Near Dark approach to vampires, forgoing the romanticism or horror aspects of being an immortal monster and choosing instead to look at it from a grounded and realistic perspective: the perspective being that living forever would be the absolute worst. Jack has been alive for thousands of years and all he has to show for it is a crate full of trinkets and millions of dollars in cash. But while Near Dark gets into the drama of living forever and relinquishing any form of attachment to anyone or anything, He Never Died uses that nihilism for dark comedy.

Jack is a lot like Bill Murray in the midpoint of Groundhog Day. He's past the point of grieving his loss of humanity, and has hit the point of being bored and not caring about anything, up to and including social niceties. That lack of empathy could run the risk of becoming boring or making the character overtly unlikable, but the script makes it funny and weirdly liberating to watch someone who obviously doesn't care about basic social protocols, like small talk and not stealing mail trucks. It also helps that the film is led by an actor who understands the assignment.

Rollins' performance as Jack is what carries the movie. If you're a fan of Henry Rollins as a performer, you'll discover his range as an actor playing someone who's the solitary type (and if you're not familiar with his work, you may have not caught the sarcasm in that statement). Almost every line of dialogue has a dry and to-the-point delivery, like he's annoyed to be having a conversation at all, or, he's just profusely honest about his attentions. At a certain point, when he's asked if he's going to a place to kill lots of people, he just shrugs and says, "Probably."

A Vampire Who Never Uses the Word

When it comes to the film's take on vampire lore, it focuses on the immortal part, with a little dabbling in extra strength and a thirst for blood. Jack doesn't transform into any crazy creatures or have the same limitations of normal vampires (they never even use the word in the entire movie). Daylight, churches, and all the rest is fair game to him. The closest he gets to resembling a vampire is when he gets hit by pepper spray, making his face look extra pale and his eyes red, almost like a subtle nod to Christopher Lee as Dracula.

Jack's vampirism and attempt to abstain from killing is also used as a metaphor for sobriety, and he actually refers to it as such. The film doesn't dive into it too deeply, but it adds a layer of drama, since he doesn't kill to survive or keep up his strength, he just does it because he has intense cravings.

Killing is also clearly where the money in the budget went: excellent effects work is on display in the delightfully grotesque ways Jack dismembers mob henchmen, and the horrific injuries he brushes off like a minor inconvenience.

He Never Died is a fun, straightforward vampire romp that dabbles in heady themes like the existential burden of immortality and the thirst for blood as a metaphor for addiction (six years before Midnight Mass), without ever losing sight of the fact that it's a dark comedy first and foremost. There's some depth to Jack's personality when it's revealed who he is and why he's immortal, which gives it a nice dose of B-movie vibes, but it just makes it funnier when it's used as an excuse to have a vampire go against the mob, headed by Steven Ogg, who, even if you don't know is the actor who portrayed Trevor in Grand Theft Auto V, you figure it out pretty quickly. Halloween season is on its way, so if you're looking to kick things off with a fresh vampire film, He Never Died is currently streaming on Tubi.