At this point, we’ve all probably seen just about every version of a zombie movie imaginable. We’ve seen them die a thousand different ways until it doesn’t really register anymore that each zombie was a living, breathing person that someone out there cared about. So what would you do if someone you loved became one of the undead? Could you kill them if you had to? Well, in the new horror drama Handling the Undead, that’s the question lingering over a handful of people placed in an impossible situation.
The Norwegian drama from writer/director Thea Hvistendahl tells three stories of families rocked by the living dead. The Worst Person in the World breakout Renate Reinsve plays a suicidal mom following the death of her child, only to learn that he has emerged from the grave as one of the undead. Another story follows a husband whose wife dies in a car accident, but finds her waiting for him at the hospital. In another, an older woman who has just lost her longtime partner, discovers the woman back in their home later the same night.
I had a chance to see Handling the Undead at Sundance and enjoyed the melancholic, somber tone in its exploration of grief for lost loved ones. What would any of us do if put in this incredible situation? Could you still love them…like this? Or would you want them to rest in peace and lose them forever?
Here’s the synopsis: On a hot summer day in Oslo, the dead mysteriously awaken, and three families are thrown into chaos when their deceased loved ones come back to them. Who are they, and what do they want? A family is faced with the mother’s reawakening before they have even mourned her death after a car accident; an elderly woman gets the love of her life back the same day she has buried her; a grandfather rescues his grandchild from the gravesite in a desperate attempt to get his daughter out of her depression. Handling the Undead is a drama with elements of horror about three families, a story about grief and loss, but also about hope and understanding of what we can’t comprehend or control.
Handling the Undead opens in theaters on May 31st.
