The Dead Don’t Die

Dir Jim Jarmusch, US 2019 On UK release

In 1968, George A Romero broke new ground with Night of the Living Dead. While the film was well received, it would be another decade before Romero followed it up with the sequel, Dawn of the Dead. With zombies having shambled slowly but steadily from horror obscurity to iconic pop culture status, many would argue that they have lost some of their appeal due to their very ubiquity in films, TV and games; it’s quite understandable that many of the living have tired of the undead: ‘zombie fatigue’ has long since threatened to set in.

However, if anyone were to go against the grain of what we have come to expect from zombie films, it would surely be Jim Jarmusch. With his latest film, he offers his take on the genre; like the rest of Jarmusch’s filmography, The Dead Don’t Die is another wayward piece that will likely please his fans and alienate mainstream audiences. Being offbeat in the truest sense of the word, the film’s setting is both pleasantly familiar and amusingly absurd. The absurdity is what may prompt many moviegoers to lose interest, as the awkwardness created by the actors’ flat delivery and lack of reaction to even the most horrifying events will simply prove too distracting and distancing for some. What makes The Dead Don’t Die stand out from other zombie films is that it is an absurdist horror comedy from start to finish. Ironically, in spite of its full-blown stylistic eclecticism, the film relies on a very traditional set-up: a small town becoming slowly but surely overrun by the undead. It’s essentially a feature-length build-up, and there are many