Can you handle it (Courtesy of Sundance Institute. Photo by Pål Ulvik Rokseth)
Starring: Renate Reinsve, Anders Danielsen Lie, Bjørn Sundquis, Bente Børsum, Bahar Pars, Inesa Dauksta
Director: Thea Hvistendahl
Running Time: 97 Minutes
Rating: Unrated (with PG-13-Level Slow-Burn Terror)
Release Date: May 31, 2024 (IFC Center in New York City)/June 7, 2024 (Select Cities)
What’s It About?: A woman finds her catatonic elderly mother in her kitchen. A man is informed that his wife is inexplicably alive after a car accident despite an ostensibly insufficient amount of oxygen. An older man digs up his dead grandson, much to the horror of his daughter who’s also the boy’s mother. In case you haven’t figured it out already, the dead have risen in Oslo. But they’re not the lumbering, ravenous zombies that we’re used to. Instead, they’re enigmas for their loved ones, is there hope that they could be fully resurrected, or is this just a never-ending tragedy?
What Made an Impression?: When to Let Go: For the most part, the undead in Handling the Undead don’t seem to be putting their family in any immediate danger (although that eventually changes). But the emotional stress they inflict is profound and inescapable. When they eventually become bitey, it literalizes the lesson they’re imparting: clinging too tightly to the departed can be lethal. Once you notice your own health withering away in this situation, it’s probably time to let go.
We Need a Prescription: When a zombie film opts for an atypical approach, it often does so from a postmodern lens, with the characters within the movie familiar with the lessons of previous zombie narratives. But in the case of Handling the Undead, it’s not clear if these people have any of that genre savvy. Even if they do, they don’t really realize that they’re dealing with zombies until it’s too late. Doctors are too puzzled to offer anything resembling a diagnosis. Indeed, no experts are available to suggest any helpful course of action. This complicates the lesson of letting go; sometimes it’s not clear when the end has arrived, and in the meantime, we must sit with the existential ambiguity and simmering threat of danger.
Handling the Undead is Recommended If You Like: Let the Right One In, Let Me In, Going heavy on the subwoofer
Grade: 3.5 out of 5 Dead-Eyed Stares
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