‘Handling the Undead’ Review – Emotional Zombie Horror Movie Unique

The big picture

• Handling the undead
  explores the concept of the living being comforted by the return of their deceased loved ones.
• The film takes a slow and quiet approach to the zombie genre, focusing on loss, suffering and undying love.
• While the film tries to offer something new, it ultimately falls short of a ground-breaking addition to the genre.

This review was originally part of our coverage of the 2024 Sundance Film Festival.

Zombies have a bad reputation. Beyond all the flesh-eating and attempts to turn the living into the undead, the fact is that these scrambled masses were once loved. We often think of zombies in terms of the loss of loved ones, when on the other side of that coin, it's an opportunity for a second chance with those we love. At least, that's the concept behind it Handling the undeaddirected and co-written by Thea Hvistendahlnext to the co-writer John Ajvide Lindqvist of Enter the correct one fame Both Hvistendahl and Lindqvist try to boil the zombie movie down to its core, but what's left are concepts we've seen in countless zombie movies before.

What is “Handling the Undead” about?

Based on Lindqvist's novel of the same name, Handling the undead takes place in Oslo, where an inexplicable high-pitched sound has been emitted throughout the city, and soon after, the recently dead have come back to life. For Anna (Renate Reinsve), the recent death of his son has given him little to live on. When his father, Mahler (Bjorn Sundquist), goes to visit his grandson's grave, pulls the boy out and finds him barely moving but breathing. Similarly, after a car accident he leaves David's wife (Anders Danielsen Lie) pronounced dead at the hospital, is soon discovered to be alive again, without explanation.

This phenomenon is happening around the city and yet, instead of fear, these people are happy to find the lost recently returned, a sorrow avoided. As we watch the living comforted by the return of the dead, Handling the undead question whether it is better to have a shell of a person we love for our comfort, or to let them rest in peace?

Handling the undead it's a slow and quiet version of the zombie movie, more about the living dealing with the repercussions of this return than eating brains or killing as many dead as possible. in many ways, Handling the undead it is quite similar to the excellent French series The Revenants, which also followed a small town as the dead came back to life, with hints of a sinister undertone. With a series that lasted two seasons, the story could delve into that return and how it affected this town. with Handling the undeadthere isn't enough time as once the concept is introduced, it's time for the film to start winding down.

“Handling the Undead” isn't as innovative as it sounds

By pulling back what we know to be a “zombie” story, tearing it down to its purest essence, Handling the undead it doesn't say anything particularly revealing. Once again, he creates a zombie story about loss, suffering and eternal love. That's a shame, considering how Lindqvist recontextualized the vampire genre Enter the correct one—maybe it's just because we've had so many different iterations of the zombie story that it holds up Handling the undead of feeling like an interesting step for the genre. This is not to say that Hvistendahl and Lindqvist's script is bad, on the contrary, but it does not seem to realize that we have already seen stories like this in the recent past.

Besides feeling quite similar to The RevenantsLindqvist and Hvistendahl's script can't help but recall Lindqvist's other work and how those other films were able to maintain an underlying level of fear, but with a narrative that still went beyond what Handling the undead is doing Enter the correct one i Matt Reeves' let me in both managed to set that tone, but tell a captivating story that played with the conventions of vampire tales. In the same way, borderthe Oscar-nominated film of Ali Abbasi which Lindqvist co-wrote, also mixes the fantastical with a strange but poignant personal story. But Handling the undead he seems content to simply set the tone and let that be the point, as we look into the lives of these various families. We're getting hints of possibilities and more interesting stories to follow, but it's too scattered to make anything stick for too long.

Hvistendahl directs these returns almost as a series of vignettes for this city, without giving any of these segments enough time to be fully effective. For example, with Anna de Reinsve, we only get bits and pieces of her story, as we point out that she has recently lost her son, that her father watches over her, and that she commits suicide because of this loss. There's potential there, and the narrative about father and daughter coming to terms with this shocking revelation changes how we expect these family members to act quite well. But as a small part of a much larger story, there isn't enough time to explore the dynamics of this family. The same goes for Lie's David and his family, in which we see David's life and the lives of his children, but there isn't enough time to do any of these characters justice, outside of their recent tragedy.

'Handling the Undead' is a film in search of life

Handling the undead it acts more like a mood piece than a focused narrative, with Hvistendahl directing this concept with the slow, meandering pace of, well, a zombie. The photograph of Celine Engebrigsten it reflects the dark and cold universe of pain that these humans return to, but their reappearance does not bring the light or warmth that they once did. This is best shown through Eva and David's relationship, as we get to spend some time with this couple before Eva's unfortunate death. There is joy and support and love that radiates between these two, and once Eva returns from the dead, all the comfort that the other woman has is gone, a shell of the person she once was. This story delves into the idea of ​​moving on better than any other narrative here, but again, there's not enough time here to fully explore that within each other's stories.

But even though Handling the undead doesn't have time to dig deep enough into its collection of stories, the individual parts of the film are still solid on their own. Hvistendahl captures a depressed, mournful mood that feels both lethargic and overwhelming, punctuated only by moments of startling dread. The photography of Engebringsten also matches this atmosphere, as the fog hovers over this city like the memories of the recently passed. And while they don't get nearly the screen time they deserve, the entire cast, especially Renate Reinsve and Anders Danielsen Lie, are doing their best with the little time they have. The elements of a decent story are everywhere Handling the undeadit just doesn't come together in a way that's entirely effective.

For some, Handling the undead may seem like a bold take on the zombie story, one that plays this idea in a much darker tone that's more about emotional resonance than blood and guts. However, in the context of gender, Handling the undead Unfortunately, it's not very new. It's a deliberately paced drama with some decent performances and a wonderfully dark aesthetic, but it doesn't have the time or effort to give these stories what they need. It's an admirable attempt to try something new in the genre, but it's been done before.

Handling the undead is now available to stream on VOD in the US

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