In Jim Jarmusch’s horror comedy The Dead Don’t Die, the messaging and metaphors come at you strong. It’s not that the movie is bad, it’s just that it feels a little preachy.
The film explains the rise of the zombies as a response to the fracking happening at the earth’s poles which has thrown the planet of its axis. The politicians either don’t believe it, or are just in denial.
Environmental agenda, check.
The undead then, instead of just looking for human flesh, first begin to congregate at areas where they were to go when they were still alive. Kids gather at the small gas station for their fix of candy and ice cream, middle aged men head to the hardware store, while others are at the pharmacy, baying for their fix of Xanax, Ambien, and Oxycontin.
Zombies as a metaphor for commercialism and consumption, check and check.
Also bonus points for the nod to legal prescribed drug use.
The movie centres on two police officers in the small rural town of Centerville, Cliff Robertson (Bill Murray) and Ronnie Peterson (Adam Driver), as the town gets overtaken by zombies. The movie is also filled with famous names in small cameo roles that, in all honesty, don’t add much other than to make the audience say “hey I know that guy!” several times throughout the movie. Chloë Sevigny, Tilda Swinton, Steve Buscemi, Danny Glover, Rosie Perez, Selena Gomez, Carol Kane (who was great in Amazon Prime’s Hunters), RZA, Caleb Landry Jones, Tom Waits, and Iggy Pop, the movie’s first real zombie.
The film itself isn’t disappointing. It’s just rather bland. The comedy isn’t “ha ha” funny. It’s more of a snicker or a light snort. It’s not that the jokes don’t land, it’s just that the jokes are very odd.
Robertson and Peterson also display some weirdly meta moments through the film. Early on when the song that had been playing over the opening credits play on the cruiser radio, Robertson asks Peterson why the song was so familiar. Peterson responds by saying because we had just heard it, that it was the theme song. Later, they talk about how Peterson had read the full script but Robertson had only been given the script pages that he was in and how “Jim” was a dick. Again. Not “ha ha” funny. More like “hah”.
This isn’t a terrible film. It’s just really really odd. It’s smart, it’s witty, and it’s curious. But what The Dead Don’t Die isn’t, is serious. Which, if you’re in the right mood, can be fun to watch.
Also Tilda Swinton is a Scottish buddhist, katana wielding, mortician alien.
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