Written & Directed by: Jim Jarmusch

In The Dead Don’t Die, the quiet small town of Centerville is thrown into chaos as the dead begin rising from their graves and feasting on the citizens’ flesh. The few police in town (Bill Murray’s Chief Cliff Robertson, Adam Driver’s Officer Ronnie Peterson, and Chloe Sevigny’s Officer Mindy Morrison) do their best to defend the town and take out as many zombies as they can, aided by the mysterious new town coroner, Zelda Winston (Tilda Swinton).

This movie is pretty fun, although it does move at a painfully slow pace for an hour and forty-five minute run time; it takes a surprisingly long time to get to the actual zombie plot thanks to all of the various character setups, since the film boasts a pretty large cast. Fortunately, everyone in the cast gives a thoroughly enjoyable performance, making the pace slightly more tolerable. Adam Driver is especially hilarious, and Tilda Swinton gives a delightfully weird and fun performance as well. Even some of the smaller cameo roles stand out; Carol Kane’s undead Mallory O’Brien groaning “Chardonnay” and Iggy Pop’s coffee-guzzling zombie awkwardly shuffling around while pouring coffee in the general vicinity of his mouth made me laugh extra hard.

Tilda Swinton

Iggy Pop

The writing in The Dead Don’t Die is kind of a mixed bag. Most of the dialogue is pretty funny, although there are a couple running jokes where the repetition quickly becomes boring. My biggest gripe is the ending; I won’t give anything away, but it’s meta in a way that feels super lazy considering there’s next to no indication that that’s the direction they’re going.

While this is a comedy, it’s still a zombie movie, and although it is fairly grisly, it’s doesn’t feel quite as gory as other zombie films, so if you’re thinking about seeing it but have a sensitive stomach you’ll probably be okay. The zombie design is mostly what you would expect, and I really like the creepy, disjointed way they move. I also like that instead of bleeding when  decapitated, the zombies expel this gritty black dust; it’s a small detail, but it’s always cool to see something different done with the popular horror movie creatures.

While The Dead Don’t Die is kind of a slog to get through, it’s mostly a fun slog, thanks to a slew of talented actors and funny dialogue, even if the ending is a little disappointing. If you like zombie movies, give this one a watch.

Have you seen Dead Don’t Die? Well, what did you think? 

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