‘Didn’t Die’ Review: Post-Apocalyptic Podcaster Horror Whiffs on Scares, but Nails Life Amidst Disaster [B-] – Sundance Film Festival
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How scared do we allow ourselves to be in the face of disaster? I was not scared watching Didn’t Die, the new zombie movie from writer/director Meera Menon and co-writer Paul Gleason. But my fear sensors might be out of whack these days: I’ve spent the last three months – really, the last eight years – not sure how scared I should be of the many serious threats facing America and the world. Some days I’m paralyzed in fear, other days the thing that scares me most is how desensitized I’ve become to the horrors around me. And still, life has to go on, as close to “normal” as can be managed.
The most interesting aspect of Didn’t Die is how it focuses on this dilemma – the ways people find and lose their sense of normalcy in awful circumstances. It’s a theme I fear will only become more and more relevant. Recently, Menon revealed her house – one of the movie’s filming locations – recently burned down in the Los Angeles fires. Written initially as a reflection on the COVID-19 pandemic, the film keeps finding new sources of resonance.
The film’s logline – “A podcast host desperately clings to an ever-shrinking audience in the zombie apocalypse” – might put certain images in your head. Funny as it might be to imagine a Joe Rogan type getting eaten by the undead (does Rogan even have enough brains to get eaten?), Didn’t Die’s protagonist Vinita (Kiran Deol) is a more likable lead, with a solid sense of humor and a calming voice fit for NPR. Running the “Didn’t Die” podcast – more a radio broadcast, really – is her way at maintaining some sort of sanity, giving herself another reason to keep going on top of being there for her brothers Hari (Samrat Chakrabarti) and Rish (Vishal Vijayakumar) and sister-in-law Barbara (Katie McCuen).
As is the trend in the zombie genre now, nobody calls the undead creatures the Z word. The Walking Dead has “walkers,” The Last of Us has “infected,” and in Didn’t Die, they’re “biters.” We hear speculation on whether Elon Musk is responsible for their existence (an easy laugh, but a cathartic one this week of all weeks). They move slowly and only come out at night… or, at least, they used to. When Rish encounters a biter during the day, Vinita doesn’t believe him. But diseases mutate, and it’s a matter of when, not if, this new mutation will undo the new normal Vinita’s family has established for itself.
Amidst the apocalypse, life still goes on… and new life enters the world. At a recording event for her hundredth episode, Vinita is confronted by her ex-boyfriend Vincent (George Basil), who brings her a baby (Lakshmi Dot, the director’s own daughter) – neither hers nor his, but an orphan rescued from beneath her parents’ corpses in a car mobbed by biters (again, in daytime). As Vinita’s household figures out what to do with this baby, the conversations about whether anyone wants to raise a child in such a difficult world echo the concerns many of my peers are having in the face of climate change.
Didn’t Die finds its most effective rhythms as a solemn but oddly chill slice of life amidst the apocalypse. When it shifts into action/horror mode during biter attacks, it’s much less successful. The shaky camerawork and chaotic editing feel as if they’re covering for poor staging. Blood splatter effects are obvious CGI – much less fun than good old-fashioned squibs. Good acting and a strong soundtrack selection shoulder the burden of getting across the tragedy of the film’s big climax, because the visual side of the filmmaking just can’t keep up.
The weak action scenes only heighten the biggest problem with Didn’t Die as a whole: the cinematography feels cheap. It might be weird to complain about cheapness when zombie movies have often been low-budget affairs, but there’s the kind of low-budget filmmaking that feels gritty and then there’s the kind that just feels distractingly amateurish. To point out just one glaring issue with the cinematography here: just because digital cameras can capture dark scenes with minimal lighting doesn’t mean they should, especially when shooting in black-and-white. The natural lighting works fine in most outdoor scenes (the problems in those lie more with camera movement and composition), but all the indoor scenes are murky gray affairs with little contrast or much clear visual direction. Compare the lighting in any interior shot in Night of the Living Dead with any similar scenes in Didn’t Die and you’ll see how much uglier the latter looks.
If you’re looking for a scary horror movie, Didn’t Die is underwhelming. If you’re looking for a thoughtful drama about processing horrors, Didn’t Die is a lot more impressive. The filmmakers seem to know their strengths, so there’s more focus on the latter than the former. Still, the scenes focused on processing horror would hit even harder if the scenes of horror hit at all, and the whole film would be massively improved with better cinematography. I commend the ideas behind Didn’t Die, even with my mixed feelings about the execution.
Grade: B-
This review is from the 2025 Sundance Film Festival, where Didn’t Die had its world premiere.
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