The Dead Don't Die (2019)
Directed by Jim Jarmusch
In the sleepy town of Centerville, the lives of a number of interconnected characters are disrupted by the undead.
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10 films that influenced The Dead Don't Die
What critics say influenced The Dead Don't Die
(The movie is well-stocked with film-culture references, and this notion of zombie consumerism echoes George Romero's 1978 Dawn of the Dead —although here we have zombies wandering the streets in search of wi-fi and Chardonnay.
Much of its in-universe rules are borrowed directly from Romero: like 1978’s Dawn Of The Dead , these ghouls are all obsessed with the one thing they desired as living beings.
That’s a clever gag, but the more prominent theme that humans are already mindless zombies due to their materialistic impulses was already handled in a far more meaningful manner by George Romero in the 1978 classic Dawn of the Dead , the one in which the natural urge of the walking dead was to head straight for the mall.
You don’t watch mainstays of the genre, like George Romero’s “Night of the Living Dead” (1968) and “Dawn of the Dead” (1979), in the hope of spotting familiar faces.
“The Dead Don’t Die” leans hard into the consumerist satire of George Romero’s 1978 classic “Dawn of the Dead,” in which all the zombies went to the mall.
Not only does it not work on its own—it is a conceit that is way too overt for its own good—the additional level of ironic self-awareness will only remind most viewers of films like “Shaun of the Dead,” “Planet Terror” and “Zombieland” that wore their self-awareness on their sleeves but still managed to create engaging and interesting stories at the same time.
Without skimping on gore, Jarmusch has positioned his film on the comedy end of the horror spectrum and, although it’s neither as funny nor as engaging as Shaun of the Dead or Zombieland, it has its own peculiar charm.
There’ll be no slapstick or zaniness on the level of other zom-coms like Zombieland or Shaun of the Dead .
The Dead Don’t Die has nothing to add to the accomplishments of Shaun of the Dead and Zombieland , and offers instead only a vague, timely sense of concern.
It goes back to “Shaun of the Dead,” to films like “Planet Terror” and “Re-Animator” — and, of course, to “Dawn of the Dead” itself, which laced its grisly spectacle with a ripe satire of the consumer culture.
You don’t watch mainstays of the genre, like George Romero’s “Night of the Living Dead” (1968) and “Dawn of the Dead” (1979), in the hope of spotting familiar faces.
Like the ghouls in Dawn of the Dead, they are drawn to the things they coveted in life, only in this case it's wifi and chardonnay.
As evidenced by sequences in George Romero's Dawn of the Dead, the zombie subgenre provides ample room for comedy, with films like Shaun of the Dead and Zombieland fully exploiting the post-apocalyptic situations' comedic potential.
The film's political references are somewhat scattershot overall, as are its efforts to comment on modern consumerism by using mindless zombies as a metaphor (a la what Romero's Dawn of the Dead did).
It's an homage to Romero's Night of the Living Dead and Dawn of the Dead first and above all, from the Pennsylvania setting to a pin being worn by genre geek Bobby Wiggins (Caleb Landry Jones), who is with Ronnie one of two characters who seems quite aware that he's in a zombie movie, to the themes of social atomisation that Jarmusch has borrowed without altering them even slightly from Dawn.
This is a nod to Romero’s “Dawn of the Dead,” where the zombies return to a huge shopping mall, endlessly roaming its corridors — basically indistinguishable from any shopping mall on any weekend afternoon.
From the science mumbo-jumbo exposition explaining why the zombies have risen (cleverly packaged in a real-life topical environmental message) to the Canada Dry-dry reaction our heroes have to the carnage that surrounds them, this is zombies as a fashion-statement on a typically solid Jarmusch film – not Art House Dawn of the Dead.
Taking the approximate place of Smith and Jones are Chris Hemsworth as Agent H and Tessa Thompson as new recruit Agent M. Hemsworth's character is a showboating veteran resting on his laurels in the London office and Thompson's is a woman who had a childhood encounter with the Men in Black, evaded their mind-wiping neuralyzers, and is now H's new partner.
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Given the influx of zombie films released in recent years – such as Train to Busan , World War Z and The Girl With All The Gifts – they all offer a sense of excitement to emphasise the danger of the undead.
As evidenced by sequences in George Romero's Dawn of the Dead , the zombie subgenre provides ample room for comedy, with films like Shaun of the Dead and Zombieland fully exploiting the post-apocalyptic situations' comedic potential.
From romance (Warm Bodies) to adventure (Zombieland) to even musicals (Anna and the Apocalypse), there’s always a fresh new take you can explore with zombie flicks.
It’s in that respect that those more familiar with Jim Jarmusch’s previous works will get more out of this film than newcomers hoping for an affair more reminiscent of Zombieland.
Entering the fray as the 2010’s undead craze starts to crawl into the grave, it rolls its eyes at the prospect of outmatching the intensity of The Walking Dead or the madcap mayhem of Zombieland .
I would rank his movie ahead of Dead Snow but behind Shaun of the Dead, Zombieland , and Anna and the Apocalypse .
As if The Return Of The Living Dead, Zombieland, Shaun Of The Dead, Juan Of The Dead – so *flipping* many examples – vanished from existence.
The zombie genre is tired thanks to nine seasons and counting of The Walking Dead and countless feature films ( 28 Days Later , World War Z ).
They’re nothing like the fast-moving denizens of “World War Z” or the armed-to-the-teeth White Walkers of “Game of Thrones,” but what else would you expect from Jarmusch, never one to hurry a scene along?
The difference between this and something like “The Walking Dead” or “World War Z” is that we are in on the joke with Jarmusch.
Given the influx of zombie films released in recent years – such as Train to Busan , World War Z and The Girl With All The Gifts – they all offer a sense of excitement to emphasise the danger of the undead.
Somewhere out there in America, some young movie fan is going to watch The Dead Don’t Die because they like Bill Murray and zombies almost as much as they like Bacon and Bee Movie memes.
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For those of us who see lots of movies year after year, it's nice to see some new spin put on the usual conventions (such as what "500 Days of Summer" did for rom-coms).
Steve Buscemi’s racist farmer dons a paraphrased MAGA cap, politicians slag off scientists and Tom Waits (in another shaggy nomad role following The Ballad of Buster Scruggs) laments about our fixation on material possessions.
Their beat consists mostly of settling petty disputes between local eccentric Hermit Bob (Tom Waits, in his Tom Waitsiest performance since his turn as a gold prospector in last year’s The Ballad of Buster Scruggs) and local asshole Farmer Frank (Steve Buscemi, in a “Keep America White Again” hat), delivering cadavers to the mysterious Scottish mortician Zelda Winston (Tilda Swinton, and oh my god I just noticed the pun in her character’s name), and swilling coffee at the local diner (manned by Stranger Than Paradise‘s Eszter Balint!).
There usually isn’t all that much crime in Centerville, and so law enforcement tends to spend most of their time resolving squabbles between an asshole farmer (Steve Buscemi sporting a “Make America White Again” hat) and Hermit Bob, the local kook (Tom Waits, whose free-range hair makes him look like a demented cross between the prospector from “The Ballad of Buster Scruggs” and the aliens from “Battlefield Earth”).