Die Before You Die is a psychological thriller by Dan Pringle that has a lot more going on under the surface (literally). Ziad Abaza delivers an excellent performance in this thought-provoking film.

A hot-headed influencer (Ziad Abaza) finds himself trapped six feet underground after an internet challenge organised by a mysterious group goes dramatically wrong. With the question of who his tormentors are becoming less and less relevant, Adi battles impending dehydration, suffocation, and his inner demons as he wrestles to stay alive and free himself from his prison within the earth.

When a stranger approaches you to get buried alive, no matter how high your follower or subscriber count is, it is probably best not to jump in with both feet. Especially when the people organising your ‘stunt’ get sketchier and sketchier with every moment. The ‘stunt’ starts to sound more like a ceremony or ritual, orchestrated by a mysterious group with unclear motives. Yet the daft Adi, in fear of becoming irrelevant online, takes up the foolish ‘challenge’ to ensure those likes and views keep ticking along for a bit longer.

Cynicism runs rampant in the first half of Dan Pringle’s Die Before You Die, and in fact, he openly wants his audience to have pockets full of cynicism towards our main character, Adi. He wants us to see this influencer flounder and be tormented with his own fears, not only for how he will be perceived after this but eventually for his family and his own life. Watching someone have an existential crisis while being buried alive isn’t a new concept in cinema. However, Pringle and co-writer (and lead) Ziad Abaza add their little flourishes to the proceedings to make you all the more invested in their story.

This intrigue grows as we consider how much of the film has a faith-based leaning. In that third act, we see someone who was a cocky yet secretly insecure person be as reckless as a father and husband could be for the lure of clicks and turn into a certifiable mess who is relying on his inner monologue to keep his sanity together. So, everything is opened up for interpretation when we get to that finale.

Was this group’s motive to sacrifice Adi? Was it to possibly even convert him? Did they make him go through all of this to strip away all of what the digital world and its temptations have embedded into him? There is a lot going on in that finale, so you could take a swing at any interpretation and feel vindicated in your decision. It is a wonderful openness to Die Before You Die that you don’t often get in thrillers like this.

Pringle and Abaza could have easily gone down the Buried route with Die Before You Die and kept it as formulaic as possible. Yet, they didn’t; they have tossed in subtle notes to their film to allow audiences to have something to consider post-credits. It takes careful and smart writing to pull this off, as well as strong filmmaking, and this has been done so well. Then there is Abaza’s performance itself, which the film clings onto to succeed. He does so much with so little that you can only be left impressed by him.

The film’s cinematography and sound design play a significant role in creating a sense of claustrophobia and tension, enhancing the overall viewing experience. That is the general feel of Die Before You Die; you can only really be impressed with it. Sure, it could have been cut down a little bit to be a touch learner, but by having the film run for 100 minutes, it allows for that anxiety and tension to build up and fully take hold. Throwing in dreamlike sequences helps break up the claustrophobia and opens Adi as a character up to see what is running through his head, making us unexpectedly more sympathetic to him as a person.

Tackling the, at times, utter nonsense that is the glorification of internet fame and the allure of stardom, Die Before You Die is an intriguing endurance test of a film. We shouldn’t like our lead; after all, he uses his daughter for content. Despite this, by the film’s end, we are fully on his side, wanting him to break free from his predicament and, hopefully, learn a valuable lesson. Both Dan Pringle and Ziad Abaza have marked themselves out as a combo we shouldn’t ignore.

Die Before You Die is in select cinemas on 4 October and on-demand on 28 October.

★★★ 1/2

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