The Dead Don’t Die

There are likely to be a lot of people who don’t enjoy this deliberately eccentric ensemble zombie comedy, but if you can tune into its meandering, directionless, surreal sense of humour, it’s quite good fun.

Premise:  The quiet town of Centerville, USA finds itself overrun with zombies after the world is knocked off its axis by polar fracking.  The town’s citizens – including Cliff the police chief (Bill Murray), Officers Ronnie and Mindy (Adam Driver and Chloe Sevigny), and Zelda the funeral director (Tilda Swinton) – all deal with the apocalypse in their own way.

Review:

Let’s be upfront about one thing from the start – The Dead Don’t Die is not trying appeal to everyone, in fact, quite the opposite is true.  This film is so deliberately eccentric, it’s either destined to become a little-known cult classic or completely fade away into obscurity, but it will never be a widespread hit (nor does it want to be).  Writer/director Jim Jarmusch has been making idiosyncratic indie films since the 80s, and has no interest in making something with “broad appeal”.

That said, because Jim Jarmusch has been making these films for over 30 years and is so well-respected as a filmmaker, he’s been able to assemble an incredible ensemble cast for this film.  Bill Murray appears as the police chief, Adam Driver and Chloe Sevigny as his deputies, Tilda Swinton as the funeral director, Steve Buscemi as a local farmer, Danny Glover as the hardware store owner, Caleb Landry Jones as the gas station attendant, and cult music legend Tom Waits as “Hermit Bob”.  Even the bit-parts are filled with recognisable names and faces – Selena Gomez and Austin Butler (fresh from playing Tex in Once Upon A Time In Hollywood) play visiting “hipsters”, Rosie Perez plays a TV reporter, RZA a delivery driver, and Carol Kane and Iggy Pop cameo as zombies.  By any standard, that’s quite a cast list.

“…breaks the fourth wall on a number of occasions…”

Plot-wise, the film doesn’t really go anywhere, but that’s arguably half the point.  It’s an ensemble movie, so each character is only on screen for a relatively short time (some shorter than others), so we just get little glimpses into how they’re reacting to the apparent end of the world.  Some characters’ storylines don’t go anywhere, some get killed off sooner than expected, and one character’s storyline in particular goes somewhere you’d never have guessed.

A lot of the surreal comedy comes from the mundanity of the apocalypse and the different characters’ reactions to it – some are in denial (suggesting the deaths are from animal attacks), while others seem aware of the threats posed by a zombie apocalypse, and some seem to think that a zombie infestation is just a matter-of-fact problem to be dealt with like any other.  One character in particular breaks the fourth wall on a number of occasions, confirming that they’re even aware that they’re in a zombie movie called The Dead Don’t Die.

“…the ensemble cast is universally great…”

The film is deliberately weird, and viewers will either make their peace with that or not.  This isn’t a zombie comedy like Shawn of the Dead or Zombieland, this is more like the end of Monty Python and the Holy Grail when the modern day police arrive in the middle of a medieval battle to arrest King Arthur.  There’s a little gore and a tiny bit of action, but for the most part, this film is neither scary nor about battling the undead hordes (who, incidentally, appear to spray dust rather than blood when struck).

I don’t think that this film can even really do said to be a satire (although I know some reviewers have thought it is).  Famously, George A. Romero’s 1978 Day of the Dead was a zombie horror that also worked as a satirical social commentary on consumerism and materialism, but I don’t think the same can really be said of The Dead Don’t Die.  Yes, it’s true that (minor spoiler) when the dead rise in this film, instead of craving brains they crave for whatever they craved in life (“Coffee…”, “Wi-Fi…” etc), but this is more of a gag than an insightful piece of social commentary.

“…taken for what it is, it’s actually quite good fun…”

Overall, The Dead Don’t Die is likely to infuriate a lot of viewers with its non-existent plot, meandering pace, and lack of scares or action – but these were all deliberate creative decisions.  The ensemble cast is universally great, and taking the film for what it is – which is the kind of surreal comedy where characters in the movie have meta conversations to wax lyrical about the film’s theme tune – it’s actually quite good fun.