Vague Visages’ Die Before You Die review contains minor spoilers. Dan Pringle’s 2024 movie features Ziad Abaza, Priya Blackburn and Falah Hashim. Check out the VV home page for more film reviews, along with cast/character summaries, streaming guides and complete soundtrack song listings.

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A skim through recent horror flicks shows that the networked world of social media has become a more frequent subject in contemporary cinema. Levan Gabriadze’s Unfriended (2014) is a moral parable about cyberbullying. Tyler MacIntyre’s teen-slasher Tragedy Girls (2017) depicts an online prank with gory consequences. Rob Savage’s Host (2020) chronicles a supernatural possession via Zoom. Dan Pringle’s 2024 film Die Before You Die joins these movies in using horror scares to explore psychological issues arising from a rapidly evolving online world.

Die Before You Die is a solid independent horror film that, in its best moments, balances effective satire with claustrophobic terror. Adi (played with vivid zest by British actor Ziad Abaza) is the online host of a popular streaming channel facing stiff competition from rival influencers, as his latest videos of daredevil pranks and extreme physical challenges rake in too few subscribers. Adi’s prospects seem to change when a supposed fan, Lee (Harry Reid), gives him an idea for a new stunt. The man promises to introduce the host to a group that will push him to his physical and psychological limits, and the challenge is every claustrophobe’s nightmare. Adi will be entombed six feet underground and forced to spend three days and three nights buried alive. At first, the TV host thinks this is the challenge that he’s been waiting for. Instead, it turns out that being buried alive, in total blackness, can go very, very wrong.

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Die Before You Die’s originality lies in how Pringle tinges the horror with dark satirical humor. The film’s success rests upon Abaza’s performance as the ambitious influencer, who has a personality that would make one break out in hives during a real-life meeting. The lead actor manages to combine tough-guy bluster with buffoonery. In the opening scenes, Abaza produces an odd mash-up of Andrew Tate-style machismo with an Alan Partridge-like cringe factor. Adi subsequently throws himself into preparations for the challenge, with the lead delivering a convincing performance.

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What’s even more refreshing about Die Before You Die is that the most memorable moments occur before Adi is even buried in the earth. Early on, Pringle introduces the sect that will oversee the challenge. They display terrifying zealotry and make graphic allusions to the rotting of the body as worms devour it beneath the soil. As the burial nears, preparations become more intense — and more farcical — through elaborate chants and ceremonies. This ominous reverence contrasts with Adi’s flippant attitude, which becomes muted as he faces the reality of his situation. Then, a fellow influencer named Max (played with understated assurance by Mim Shaikh) convinces the protagonist to go through with the challenge. When the moment of truth arrives, Adi essentially digs his own grave.

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Pringle executes Die Before You Die’s opening build-up well. The director controls the unpredictable narrative twists and heightens suspense while Adi becomes aware of the absurdity of his situation, which is both tragic and quietly ridiculous. However, Die Before You Die becomes a little more heavy and self-knowing in certain parts. For instance, Adi takes a toy monkey into the tomb, a small good-luck gift from his young daughter. Nicknamed “Oge,” it is Adi’s only company. He has lengthy conversations with the monkey that become increasingly desperate, yet these discussions are artificial in places and are often played too heavily for the same laughs that Pringle generates so easily in the film’s opening half.

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Some of the tension generated in Die Before You Die’s early sequences seeps out as Pringle focuses on the confines of the underground tomb. The predicament is such a standard, primal fear that it’s surprising the director doesn’t maximize the inherent horror. The fact that the monkey’s name is “Ego” spelt backwards is also a little too try-hard and clever. By the film’s climax, the moments of self-seriousness threaten to outpace the original horror.

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However, Die Before You Die is still a memorable thriller that mixes claustrophobic horror and some psychological insight. It’s a platform for Abaza, who captures all the ghastly vanity of an influencer while still being credible in the underground scenes. The actor is incredibly believable when the camera gets up close and shows a stark image of the protagonist’s anguished face as he grapples with his predicament. Once viewers adjust to the black-comic humor, Die Before You Die offers satirical reflections on the dark potential of online media and the cynical vanity it generates within its users.

Christina Brennan (@bigloudscreams) is a UK-based freelance writer with bylines in Little White Lies, Flux Magazine and Filmhounds. She has a soft spot for all types of horror movies and is currently writing a book on George Sluizer’s thriller The Vanishing (due to be released in 2025).

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