Republished from the show notes of my other site, Fuds on Film.
Jim Jarmusch’s 2019 zombie flick is maybe not the obvious choice for revisiting, given that I’m not a massive fan of either horror films or Jim Jarmusch films, but it presented such a contrast from last months execrable Army of the Dead that it seemed like it would make for some interesting comparisons.
In tried and tested zombie film style, a small American town in beset by a plague of the dead rising from their graves and causing their unique brand of shambolic mayhem while the quirky bunch of locals try to survive. Broadly speaking, anyway. The police force are of course first responders to this unpleasantness, headed by Bill Murray’s Chief Cliff Robertson and Adam Driver’s Officer Ronnie Peterson, the latter of whom knows that this will end badly, because he’s read the script and is already tired of Sturgill Simpson’s title music. Yes, it’s one of those films.
More characters in the ensemble are introduced, like Steve Buscemi’s irascible racist Frank Miller, a farmer, Danny Glover’s Hank Thompson, a hardware store owner who is most certainly too old for this shit, and Tilda Swinton’s Zelda Winston, the town’s new undertaker, played as if she was David Bowie’s The Man Who Fell To Earth By The Way Of The Isle Of Lewis, for good reason as it turns out.
There’s many other well-kent faces, of course, like Selena Gomez’s Zoe who’s part of a stereotypically young adult out-of-towners whose days are obviously numbered, Iggy Pop as a Coffee Zombie, if I recall correctly RZA as a delivery driver, and with all credit to whoever wrote the wikipedia entry for this, Tom Waits as a baroquely bearded eccentric hermit.
It’s the sort of film where any sort of detailed plot recap would be redundant, so let’s just say that it’s an exceedingly low key take on the genre, at least in terms of the reactions of most of the cast to the events, the incongruity of which is where the film derives most of its humour. The critical question is, of course, is it funny, and my answer is, eeeeeh, kinda.
Which itself is quite a trick, as its early doors fourth wall demolition made me want to buy a physical copy of this just to destroy it, but in hindsight it popping up as an occasional running gag does kind of work for me, particularly by the end at which point the silliness of it has been cranked up from underlying to overwhelming.
It’s humour is more situational than setups and punchlines, and will one-hundred percent not be to everyone’s tastes. In fact I’m pretty sure everyone that watches this will find it hit and miss, and the relative percentages of both will naturally determine your overall enjoyment of the film. And it’s very hard to guide you, dear audience, if it’s going to land for you, but lets just say if you cannot stand the sort of torture comedy of Austin Power‘s extended urination scene then there’s at least one chunk of this that will drive you up the wall.
I’ve not seen the obvious comparison point, Jarmusch’s Only Lovers Left Alive, his vampire flick, but I can at least say this shares a similar sense of urgency and danger as the other Jarmusch Driver vehicle Paterson, which is an outlandish thing to say. I’ve also seen it described as respecting the genre – I’m not so sure on that – while the practical zombie body chomping effects are a homage to Tom Savini, there one jab, or what I perceived as one, at any rate, about the exceedingly superficial ‘critique’ of consumerism that’s attributed to Dawn of the Dead, and yes, I will die on this hill. And then come back as a zombie and eat you.
So where does that leave The Dead Don’t Die? For a film that appears, on a quick bounce around review sites, to be a film that you will either love or hate, I’m broadly indifferent about it. Overall I suppose I enjoyed it enough to not regret spending a couple of hours with it, and if you have a greater affinity for Jarmusch’s quirky indie sensibilities then you’ll probably enjoy this, but that’s certainly not a broad recommendation. If it sound up your street, watch it, if it doesn’t, don’t. I’m not the boss of you. Live your life, be free.