In theaters and On Demand as of Friday, November 3, 2023 through Screen Media, Helen’s Dead opens on a house party of shocked guests whereupon the titular character is pronounced dead, but who did it and why? That is what we are going to find out, but not yet as the film then flashes back in time.
Directed by K. Asher Levin, who also co-wrote the script along with Amy Brown Carver, Helen’s Dead is an odd mishmash of a whodunnit murder mystery and a home invasion thriller. But before the film even reaches that point, there is a long buildup as each character is introduced. There is Adam (Emile Hirsch: Into the Wild 2007, The Autopsy of Jane Doe 2016), a misogynistic idiot who is cheating on his girlfriend Addie (Dylan Gelula: Horse Girl 2020, I Want You Back 2022), with the aforementioned Helen (Matilda Lutz: Revenge 2017, A Classic Horror Story 2021).
As Adam is busy criticizing everything about Addie from her career to her weight, Helen and Addie’s sister Leila (Annabelle Dexter-Jones: Holy Motors 2012, Under the Silver Lake 2018) is busy getting ready for a party alongside her obnoxious husband George (Brian Huskey: Father Figures 2017, Sound of Violence 2021). A social media influencer, Leila has invited influential businesswoman Molly (Beth Dover: Good on Paper 2021, Outpost 2022) in the hopes of scoring an interview that will boost her own profile. As the characters all begin to gather at the party, two further unexpected guests turn up. There is aspiring actor Garrett (Oliver Cooper: Project X 212, Ghostbusters Afterlife 2021) who is romantically interested in Helen and finally there is criminal Henry (Tyrese Gibson: Baby Boy 2001, Fast & Furious franchise) who also has connections to Helen. Now finally the scene is set ready for a murder.
One of Helen’s Dead’s major issues is that the characters are all abhorrent, with perhaps Addie as the only exception. Each one is self-obsessed, rude or just an outright criminal and as such it makes it difficult to enjoy watching them. Often the victim in a murder mystery is the one in which everyone had an axe to grind, however in this case the possible reasons for Helen’s demise feel weak and tenuous and the resulting feeling is wishing that more of the characters were bumped off instead. As the film morphs into a home invasion, it feels that the murder mystery angle is dropped when it never really got started properly to begin with.
At certain points, Helen’s Dead tries to inject humor and satire, but this only further confuses its tone. The performances also add to the confusion as they feel either too over the top or too serious. Helen’s Dead had the potential to be an interesting murder mystery, however the attempts to expand the film beyond that are only to its detriment. For everything considered, Cryptic Rock gives Helen’s Dead 2 out of 5 stars.
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