Mooovies. *shuffle shuffle shuffle* Mooovies. *shuffle shuffle*
The zombies in this movie gravitate toward what they loved in life. And instead of saying “braaaains” they say that thing. The preceding was me as a zombie in this world.
All I knew going into this was Adam Driver and Bill Murray battling zombies. That’s all I needed. I actually rather liked not knowing anything about this film because it meant that I could discover it as it went along and experience the absurd sense of humor.
Just a warning, this isn’t a zombie movie for the mainstream audience. It’s slow paced and it’s weird. It’s not a thrilling 28 Days Later or a hilarious Zombieland. This is a movie for those who don’t want the usual undeads. Everything about the style of this movie are things that I don’t typically care for, but for some reason they really worked for me this time.
First of all, that slow pace. Normally, I’d be bored and falling asleep. But the film felt so bright, it kept me in it. And since I had zero clue of where it was going, the pace drew out my anticipation. I was jumping out of my seat to know what was coming next.
And what came next was usually very strange. So much happened that was completely unexpected. The dialog was absurd, the humor was often brilliantly meta, the action took turns I didn’t forsee. The slow feel actually made the film feel very carefully made, like every element was carefully curated with a purpose. In my case, that purpose was often laughter. But judging by the people sitting next to me who left the movie early, that wasn’t the result for everyone.
There were some great surprises in the cast as well. Driver and Murray anchored it beautifully (I especially loved Driver’s dry line delivery) but there were so many wonderful cameos. Again, don’t look them up. Just be tickled by who shows up undead (but maybe don’t let the undead tickle you).
The Dead Don’t Die – \m/ \m/ \m/ \n