Handling the UndeadIs the Most Somber Zombie Movie You’ll Ever See

Earlier in io9 ’s 2024Sundance Film Festivalcoverage , we reviewedIn a Violent Nature , one of the most unconventionalslasher moviesever made . That theme continues with treat the Undead — a most unusual zombie movie , and one that offers proof ( yet again ) that the genre still has the ability to innovate .

A lot of that is down to the source - fabric novel by John Ajvide Lindqvist , in all probability Sweden ’s most notable horror writer thanks to the global succeeder of permit the Right One In andits subsequent adaptations . First - clip feature conductor Thea Hvistendahl , who co - write the script with Lindqvist , shift the action from Sweden to Norway , but — though there ’s a certain Norse austerity that permeates everything — this tale really could take place anywhere . It focuses on three different stories of people dealing with grief that ’s still unused and in the buff : an older fair sex who ’s just lost her married woman ; a granddaddy and mother struggling to accept the last of the latter ’s untested son ; and a vivacious female parent — the only character we touch before she cash in one’s chips — who succumbs to a car stroke , leaving behind her sorrowing husband and kids .

Given the diseased field of study matter , it ’s no surprisal sadness and somberness hang to every frame , and Handling the Undead is in no hurry to offer any relief ; the first third of the movie inches along at a glacial pace . But then , something happens . The power goes out ; when it comes back on , this seemingly natural glitch turns supernatural , and the recently conk start wake up up . For the three families we ’ve met , the state of affairs greatly complicates the grieving process in different ways . The elderly woman is thrilled to reunify with her sweetheart , who just stroll back home fag out the elegant apparel she was jell to be bury in — lead to tender moment that palpate like a romantic twirl on Pet Sematary or “ The Monkey ’s Paw . ” The frost that ’s permeated the young child ’s sept — the mother is played by Renate Reinsve , who starred in 2021 ’s The Worst Person in the World — melts almost right away as Grandpa and Mom unite to care for the boy . And the family line of the car - crash victim , who revive in a infirmary morgue , struggle with how to palpate as she undergo a twine of aesculapian tests that ca n’t explicate her sudden recovery .

Image: Courtesy of Sundance Institute

Beyond the hospital scenes , a few interactions with the police force and glance of the spiritualist , and one instant where we see kid mockingly act like zombi spirit in the setting , we do n’t learn much about how the broad world is reacting to all this . cover the Undead is far more interested in these internal storey , and as a result it end up offer an spookily naturalistic geographic expedition of how average people might react to seeing their know ones come back to life . The range of emotions feels deeply human , but pure horror — and treat the Undead is most definitely a repulsion movie , something that becomes perfectly percipient as it progresses — lie in wait beneath every felicitous snag and eager embrace of a abruptly breathing - again stiff .

wield the Undead premiered at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival ; Neon will circulate it in the U.S. though a release day of the month is not yet known .

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Image: Courtesy of Sundance Institute