Panic Fest 2025 Coverage
Tomorrow I Die review
Our old friend…familial trauma.
Festival reviews will not contain spoilers.
Tomorrow I Die
Directed by Nikol Cibuyla
Written by Nikol Cibuyla
Starring Niké Kurta
Tomorrow I Die Review
I believe Tomorrow I Die is the first Hungarian horror film I’ve ever watched. Don’t Breathe was shot in Hungary…but you know what I mean. A non-English speaking Hungarian production. Fortunately, trauma horror translates into any language. That’s right…Tomorrow I Die is a trauma horror movie. It’s becoming increasingly difficult to find a modern horror film that isn’t. If you don’t believe me…a quick glance at our recent “New Movie Reviews” might change your mind. Bring Her Back is all about trauma. Clown in a Cornfield is about the collective trauma of a rural town. Rosario is about generational trauma. Even Final Destination: Bloodlines makes familial trauma the backbone of its death by design hijinks.
That last one is the most interesting. The Final Destination franchise has always included some kind of trauma based story. Each chapter begins with a character’s premonition saving their life…and the lives of those around them. They carry a certain amount of trauma around with them as they attempt to survive a (mostly) unsurvivable situation. Bloodlines does things a bit differently. The trauma has been passed down through generations of a family…and all the afflicted characters serve as branches of the same tree. Family drama and generational trauma floods into the usual space reserved for wacky deaths and cartoonish reactions.
Tomorrow I Die is, unintentionally, a serious counterpoint to Bloodlines. You won’t find over-the-top death scenes, gratuitous gore or a high body count here. But…at its core, Tomorrow I Die is the story of a character who believes they are about to die…and how they react to it. It’s connected to family trauma, of course. But in its most interesting moments, Tomorrow I Die is about its main character’s knowledge of an impending doom…one that people around her are either oblivious or skeptical of. If you knew you were about to die…you could try to beat it like the characters in Bloodlines…or you could be kind of crabby about it like the main character in Tomorrow I Die.
That’s an oversimplification, of course. It is the most interesting part of this story, however. There are family secrets to reveal and strange things to see…but it’s the emotional state of the seemingly doomed main character that gives Tomorrow I Die its most interesting moments.
Irma (Niké Kurta) heads to her family’s remote cabin…believing that she is fated to die. Not wanting to be alone, she invites her half-brother Marci (Marton Kerekes) and her best friend Stefi (Emoke Piti) to join her. Marci is joined by her boyfriend Donat (Daniel Baki). Irma has a surprise for everyone…she’s very pregnant. And…she believes she is going to die the next day…the anniversary of her own mother’s death at the same age.
The first half of Tomorrow I Die has us spending time with the group. Kurta gives a great performance as the doomed Irma. She’s equal parts aloof and bitter. Irma takes every opportunity to show her frustrations towards her supposed loved ones…especially her best friend Stefi and (after his arrival) the father of her child, Kornel (Zalan Makranczi). It seems, resigned to her fate, Irma is simply out of you know what’s to give. It’s an intriguing examination of how a character reacts to their impending doom.
There’s obviously more to Tomorrow I Die than the main character’s first half attitude. It dives into some more traditional family trauma concepts and throws a few traditional horror moves into the mix. It’s all earned and well crafted…it’s just not as interesting as the Irma character is. We’ve seen so many versions of the same concept…in many languages…for the beats to make the same impact. Tomorrow I Die’s use of character, however…gives the story fresh eyes to view them through.
Scare Value
Tomorrow I Die feels appropriately bleak and inevitable. Irma’s belief in her impending doom informs how she acts, and reacts, to the friends and family around her. It goes deeper, of course. Into that familiar generational trauma that horror movies enjoy exploring so much. Tomorrow I Die doesn’t reinvent the wheel of trauma horror…but it is confident in telling the story it chooses.
