‘Handling the Undead’ Review: Return of the Slow Zombies | Sundance 2024

In horror fan circles, one topic always guaranteed to spark heated debate is the matter of “fast zombies” vs. “slow zombies.” For most of cinema history, “slow zombies” were the only zombies – the quietly lurching monsters most dangerous because of their endurance and sheer numbers. “Fast zombies,” which can run at their prey, were introduced as more dangerous video game enemies in the ‘90s and made the jump to the big screen in Danny Boyle’s 2002 hit 28 Days Later. These more agile undead have become widespread in the 21st century as the genre has leaned in the direction of more exciting action, but there’s something to be said for the sheer creepiness of the traditional slow versions.

Handling the Undead, a new Norwegian film directed by Thea Hvistendahl, is both a “slow zombie” movie and a slow zombie movie. This is the zombie movie as austere, meditative art cinema, centered around the question of how the revival of the recently deceased would impact the grieving processes of the living. It’s not really a horror film – until it becomes one in the last 20 minutes – and there’s hardly a trace of violence – again, until those last 20 minutes, where it becomes almost too upsetting to bear. Distributor NEON has an interesting marketing challenge ahead, having to aim for the center of the Venn diagram of cinephiles who appreciate both their Ingmar Bergman and their George Romero.

Hvistendahl co-wrote the screenplay with John Ajvide Lindqvist, the author of the 2005 novel the film is based on. Lindqvist is best known internationally for his 2004 debut novel Let the Right One In and for screenwriting its 2008 movie adaptation. That child vampire story has become a modern horror classic, with the movie being further adapted into an English language remake, a Showtime TV series, and multiple stage adaptations. Interestingly, Lindqvist’s approach to adapting his own stories to the big screen has involved an intentional softening of the weirder and more frightening edges of the written versions. In the Let the Right One In novel, Håkan is one of the sickest villains imaginable; in the movie, his story is altered and his full twisted nature obscured enough that some viewers who hadn’t read the book perceived him as more of a victim.

Lindqvist’s loose approach to self-adaptation is even looser in Handling the Undead. Both the book and the movie are hyperlink narratives with three main threads: there’s one story about the resurrection of a mother, one about the resurrection of a child, and one about the resurrection of an elderly lover (one refreshing adaptational change: the latter is now a lesbian love story in the film). The book gets more sociological about how the government and society as a whole is impacted by the rise of the undead, while also getting into more metaphysical weirdness with telepathy and explanations for why the zombies behave the way they do (some of which are hinted at still being canon for the movie, but certainly aren’t stated directly). In contrast, the movie keeps its focus squarely on the subject of the characters’ grief.

There are a lot of characters to introduce in the film’s first act, and it handles these introductions with minimal dialogue. Taking so long to get to the zombies might sound boring on paper, but the slow-paced film is nonetheless captivating thanks to Pål Ulvik Rokseth’s gorgeous cinematography and Peter Raeburn’s haunting musical score. Befitting the generally unfrightened tone to which the characters respond to their dead loved ones returning, the mass blackout which signals the zombies’ arrival plays with genuine awe, less like a horror film and more like something out of Close Encounters of the Third Kind.

To all these people in mourning, just having the bodies of their lost loved ones around feels like something of a miracle, even if these undead beings can’t communicate and retain at best a shadow of their former minds. The grandfather Mahler (Bjørn Sundquist) lovingly cleans the rot off their zombie grandchild’s corpse while the boy’s mother Anna (Renate Reinsve) seeks to protect him; the old lesbian (Bente Børsum) does makeup for her zombie partner (Olga Damani) and slow dances to Nina Simone’s “Ne Me Quitte Pas” in a scene guaranteed to bring you to tears.

The thread about a stand-up comedian (Anders Danielsen Lie, somewhat disappointingly never getting to interact with his Worst Person in the World co-star Reinsve) trying to address his children (Inesa Dauksta and Kian Hansen) about their mom’s (Bahar Pars) death and zombification is one that could probably have benefited the most from further development and stronger characterization. That said, it is memorable for containing some of the movie’s few moments of levity – the kids love their zombie video games – and for its single most disturbing scene – though that’s one animal lovers might not want to remember (even if you close your eyes, some sounds you can’t unhear).

As a whole, the Handling the Undead movie is a bit too minimalist to go down as a classic of the genre. One wonders if perhaps it could have been enlivened by working in more of the book’s more out-there big ideas. Nonetheless, it’s a unique entry in zombie movie canon. Made for a very specific audience, not everyone will vibe with its slow cinema stylings, but the artistry behind it is undeniable, and if it hits for you, the emotion it inspires is powerful.

Grade: B

Handling the Undead debuted in the World Cinema Dramatic Competition section of the 2024 Sundance Film Festival. It will be distributed in the U.S. by NEON.