The Dead Don't Die has one cracking premise. A wry zom-com with a cracking cast that includes all of the hottest names in indie cinema right now? Count. Me. In. It played in competition at Cannes? Awesome! And then the reviews came out.... and they were less than great. I stayed optimistic though, and finally watching The Dead Don't Die, I have to say, I'm incredibly disappointed. I mean, this is just a huge let down, especially when it didn't have to be. The film is set in Centerville, "A Real Nice Place". Weird things are happening in nature, with the sun going down at strange times, animals acting weird, and the dead rising from the grave in search of the things that gave their lives meaning.
The problem is in the execution. I know it's Jim Jarmusch's style, but the cynical, ironic sarcasm just feels like the wrong approach. The humour is joyless and sardonic, and the frequent fourth wall breaking is just so grating. Characters talk about the film's (pretty cracking) theme song, ask each other if they're improvising, and in a totally misjudged moment, talk about how much of the script they read beforehand. And then there's the satire, which is so dull and obvious. Apart from the teeth grindingly blatant contemporary jabs (one character wears a "Keep America White Again" cap), there's the unbelievably tired criticism of consumerism, which is pretty much Romero's Dawn of the Dead with a hipster makeover. Apart from being incredibly derivative, it's also boring, with absolutely nothing new to say. The film is so focused on this satire, to the point where it becomes such a glum, cynical slog.
The movie really takes its time building up its zombie action, only for their arrival to be treated with absolute indifference. None of the characters are even remotely interested in what's going in, and spend most of the film just sitting around talking. Yeah, that's Jarmusch's thing, but it was just not the right approach here, because instead of working up to a climax that feels impressive or impactful, it fizzles out in a frustrating display of indifference, as if the film itself is just shrugging and saying "whatever". I'm not asking for full on action or anything, but it'd be nice to have something of substance happening, because by the end, it just feels like such a waste of time, that abandons effective horror or clever satire for self satisfied post-modernism that's almost proud to be cynical. The film basks in its own self awareness and is in awe of its own ironic humour.
Not to say that's it's bad, because there are things that I enjoyed, like Tilda Swinton's Scottish mortician/samurai, who's an absolute delight and a serious scene stealer. I also really like Tom Waits' Hermit Bob, a mysterious old man who knows everything that's going on through almost supernatural means. The plot about the three kids escaping from juvie is also kind of fun, even if it's completely abandoned over the course of the runtime. It's also kind of cool to see a film like this. Disappointment or not, it's so driven by Jarmusch's vision that it's hard not to admire, even if that vision didn't turn out great in the end result.
Another problem is that it's an absolute mess. There are so many characters with so many plots, most of which are just completely abandoned as the film goes on. The three central cops (Bill Murray, Adam Driver and Chloë Sevigny) are fine, even if they're totally flat as characters. Danny Glover and Caleb Landry Jones have a plot that should be fun (horror buff and hardware salesman fight the undead), but ends just when it feels like it's getting started. Steve Buscemi's racist farmer should be a scathing comment, but appears too briefly to make any significant impact. Selena Gomez's hipster and her poorly drawn friends meet a similar fate, with a story that ends just as the zombie action picks up. That's a big problem here actually; interesting ideas stopping before they can properly start. An ending that fades out without really concluding anything doesn't help matters, nor does an inexplicable explanation of one character's origins that feels like a comment on something, but the film's probably too smug and self satisfied to elaborate on that.
The Dead Don't Die is one of the most annoying films I've seen in a while, not because it's bad, but because it's disinterested. The irony and deadpan humour feel so misused, and because nobody really reacts to anything, nothing that happens feels like it actually means anything. It's be fine if that was the intention, to make an almost subversive horror that plays with your expectations by deliberately being uneventful, but I get the feeling it wasn't. Or maybe it was partially, but primarily this feels to me like an attempt at the same kind of comment that Romero made 40 years ago. Dawn of the Dead works because of the full on gore, with the social commentary being largely subtextual. The deadpan humour and unbelievably messy plot dull the satire in this film, taking out the film's teeth and really souring the tone. After all, how you can you have fun with something that feels like it's afraid to have fun with itself?
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