By Seth Lukas Hynes
The Dead Don’t Die
Starring Adam Driver, Bill Murray and Chloe Sevigny
Rated MA15+
The Dead Don’t Die is American auteur Jim Jarmusch’s fun but stumbling take on a zombie film.
After polar fracking causes the Earth’s axis to shift, the dead rise from their graves in the quiet town of Centreville.
The Dead Don’t Die is an amusing but mostly-unsuccessful experiment in genre and atmosphere.
The deadpan performances, hammy dialogue and frequent coincidences generate an intriguing surreal feel early on, both parodying the film’s B-movie roots and delivering some clever winks to the audience. The film also plays with contrast, juxtaposing the flat tone with graphic scenes of zombie violence.
However, these quirky effects steadily wear out, exposing the film’s severe lack of energy. Even with ravenous undead hordes prowling the town, the film feels limp and tedious, as the characters rarely feel invested in or affected by what’s happening around them.
Moreover, a late revelation about the nature of the film’s world further erodes any sense of tension from the narrative.
Jarmusch’s previous supernatural film, Only Lovers Left Alive, is far superior: it has a similar low-key vibe and slow pacing, but it’s heartbreakingly poignant, genuinely suspenseful and delves far deeper into its vampire main characters.
While admirable and well-produced, The Dead Don’t Die goes beyond a deadpan zombie comedy and ends up aimless and bland.
