When Zombies Rise in a Small Town, They Don’t Only Crave Humans

From left: Adam Driver, Chloë Sevigny, and Bill Murray in
"The Dead Don't Die"
Photo Credit: Imdb.com

The zombie sub-genre of horror has shown to be full of possibilities.  Not only is it capable of offering tense drama and scares, such as in movies like George A. Romero’s “Night of the Living Dead” and Dawn of Dead,” as well as in Frank Darabont’s hit television series, “The Walking Dead,” it has also proven to present the undead from a comedic angle, such as in films like Edgar Wright’s “Shaun of the Dead,” Ruben Fleischer’s “Zombieland,” and Jonathan Levine’s “Warm Bodies.”  These movies show that the apocalypse doesn’t always have to be a dour affair and can offer many laughs.

Indie filmmaker Jim Jarmusch tries his hand at a zombie comedy with “The Dead Don’t Die,” a movie that’s entertaining, thought-provoking, and proud to be odd.

In the quiet, small town of Centerville, the local police force (Bill Murray, Adam Driver, and Chloë Sevigny) tasks themselves with defending their community when a horde of zombies takes over.

The cast comes loaded with talent.  Besides Murray, Driver and Sevigny, the movie also has performances by Steve Buscemi, Danny Glover, Caleb Landry Jones, Rosie Perez, Carol Kane, Tom Waits, and Selena Gomez.  The story has to juggle many characters, so it might seem like there’s not much to the characters because of how little time many of them have for development.  However, this works for the movie because the characters being simply drawn reflects the small-town ordinariness of their lives; they’re just normal people going about their normal lives.

Out of all of these cast members, there’s one who’s given a little more with which to work, and that’s Tilda Swinton, who plays a sword-wielding undertaker, which should be enough to make you want to see this movie.  It’s an enjoyable and strange performance that brings out the magnetism that you feel whenever Swinton is on screen, whether it be in this film, or any other in which she appears.  Swinton doesn’t get a lot of screen time, but when she’s given a scene, you can’t get enough of her.

Despite the film ending the story-lines for each character in one way or another, there’s a trio of characters from a local juvenile detention center that the movie follows for a few scenes, but they aren’t given a resolution, which is a bit disappointing because there seemed to be potential in this plot thread.

The screenplay by Jarmusch doesn’t only supply laughs, but also some social commentary.  The film deals with the topic of complacency, with the characters carrying out their everyday lifestyles without any change, bits of dialogue being repeated throughout the movie, and zombies wanting to revert back to their routines by searching for things that they desired when they were human.  The film also explores the subject of ignorance as we hear some people on the news choosing to ignore the possibility of an apocalyptic threat, even though the evidence is there to support it.  There’s also some meta-humor that reinforces these concepts.  Although some of the commentary is a bit hammered in during the closing minutes, what comes before offers an intriguing angle from which to approach zombie films.

As a director, Jarmusch is able to maintain a comedically dry tone, while also providing tinges of dread from time to time, without it feeling too jarring.  And, once it comes time for the characters to take on the zombies, you have some fun action with Murray and his police force blasting rounds and swinging a machete into the undead, as well as Swinton having a good time slashing through her enemies with her sword.

“The Dead Don’t Die” may have a couple of flaws, but it still proves to be a zombie movie with enough bite to it.

Grade: B+