Die Before You Die (2024)

Director Dan Pringle's British variation on theme of being buried alive gets a cinema release from Bulldog Distribution.

Adi (co-writer Ziad Abaza) has his own youtube channel, is chasing 100 000 subscribers, and is always on the lookout for material to use as content. A chance meeting with Lee (Harry Reid) in a restaurant leads him to agreeing to a stunt where he will be buried six feet underground for three days (with water and an air supply) after which he will be dug up again.

However, when he and his colleague turn up to the assigned meeting place, it looks very much as if he has agreed to take part in a ritual. Deprived of his clothes and, most importantly, his phone, Adi decides to go along with the burial anyway as he can always report on it after. But then the blindfold comes out and Adi is driven to the middle of nowhere where he's then buried. But after three days have passed he begins to wonder if anyone is actually coming to dig him up. 

DIE BEFORE YOU DIE certainly goes in directions you aren't expecting, with the result that on the whole this is an intriguing and well told story. Unfortunately the ending is confusing rather than ambiguous, To say any more here would be to spoil it, suffice to say that after all that has gone before it feels a somewhat unsatisfying way to resolve things. Here's a trailer:

DIE BEFORE YOU DIE is out in UK cinemas on Friday 4th October 2024 and on Digital from Monday 28th October 2024