2
Feb/21

100 DAYS TO LIVE

2
Feb/21

100 DAYS TO LIVE (Ravin Gandhi, 2019)
Available Tuesday, February 2
100daystolive.co

“Every ten minutes, someone in America kills themselves,” suicide prevention counselor Rebecca Church (Heidi Johanningmeier) says near the beginning of Ravin Gandhi’s cinematic debut, the insightful if methodical psychological thriller, 100 Days to Live, which releases online February 2. Gandhi is an unlikely filmmaker, a successful Illinois businessman who made his money in nonstick coatings and private equity. He felt compelled to make this film, which he wrote over several years on nights and weekends and ultimately shot in three weeks on an indie budget, much of it filmed in his house; he even cast his mother in it. But it’s not an “issue” movie: It’s a serial killer flick with a unique and powerful twist, involving suicide. “What do you see when you fantasize about death?” the killer (Gideon Emery) asks.

Suicide prevention counselor Rebecca Church (Heidi Johanningmeier) faces off against a serial killer in 100 Days to Live (photo by Nicholas Puetz)

Rebecca is putting her life back together, falling in love with Gabriel Weeks (Colin Egglesfield). But when Gabriel is kidnapped by the killer, who stalks his prey for days in an ominous white van, Rebecca works with Detective Jack Byers (Yancey Arias) to try to save him. The city of Chicago is a character unto itself as the hunt continues and characters’ secrets emerge.

Winner of the Best World Premiere and Best First Time Director awards at the 2021 San Diego International Film Festival, 100 Days to Live features several cool turns that appear just in time, whenever the narrative threatens to get bogged down in cliché or get stuck in a big plot hole. Gandhi, who serves as writer and director as well as one of the producers and executive producers, tends to forge ahead with a fairly straightforward procedural style, both visually and with the narrative, but the main twist is so good, it’s worth sticking around for and seeing through to the end.