Handling the Undead

R

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1h 37m

Horror

Drama

Mystery & Thriller

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74%

Tomatometer

66 Reviews

64%

Audience Score

Fewer than 50 Ratings

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.

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Critics Consensus

A grounded zombie picture with emotional bite, Handling the Undead shuffles along at a patient pace but succeeds as a poignant and thoughtful addition to the genre.

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Sara Michelle Fetters

MovieFreak.com

Hvistendahl treats the audience with respect, her and Lindqvist’s reworking of the latter’s source material respectful, intelligent, and overflowing in empathy.

Rated: 3.5/4

Jun 9, 2024

Full Review

Randy Myers

San Jose Mercury News

Composer Peter Raeburn’s beautifully sad soundtrack along with Pål Ulvik Rokseth’s cinematography contribute to creating a tragic mood that’s hard to let go of after the film’s sad conclusion.

Rated: 3/4

Jun 6, 2024

Full Review

Brent Simon

AV Club

The cooking comparison for Handling the Undead would be a sauce that’s broken, its elements having separated. There’s a genuine sense of lived-in sadness here, but this would-be elegy doesn't offer quite enough mesmeric insights to justify its somberness.

Rated: C-

Jun 6, 2024

Full Review

Christopher Cross

Asynchronous Media

The peculiar circumstances that consume its grief-stricken characters leave an underwhelming and distant film in its wake, as Handling The Undead grapples raw emotions with cold, dead hands.

Rated: 2.5/5

Jun 17, 2024

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Pat Padua

Spectrum Culture

Maybe that’s the more fruitful lesson of Handling the Undead: That art is more than sleepwalking in a zombified fog; real art shakes you out of your slumber.

Rated: 60/100

Jun 14, 2024

Full Review

Nuha Hassan

Nuha Hassan

For now, Hvistendahl’s Handling the Undead is a revival of the zombie genre. The Scandinavian drama is a one-of-a-kind film that brings a spellbinding and mesmerising story of a never-ending nightmare.

Jun 12, 2024

Full Review

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Will G

If “slow is smooth”, and “smooth is fast”, then you can call this an epic. Zombies were loved once upon a time, weren’t they?

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

06/16/24

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Kitten C

Repetitive, overindulgent, too many unnecessary shots that don’t advance the narrative… I walked out of the theater.

Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars

06/13/24

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Audience Member

Atmospheric arthouse drama. Enjoyed it. More eerie and haunting than scary. Focuses more on loss and grief than horror of zombies.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

06/09/24

Full Review

Audience Member

This film is so different from how peole are interpretating it, because "zombie" is in the general description. But this is so much more than a horror film. Most people have lost someone dear to them and this film goes to where most people don't want to. Love and loss, and the longing for a loved ones return. Fantastic soundtrack and fantastic actors all of whom excel to convince the audience of their eternal grief. Go see

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

06/08/24

Full Review

Victoria A

Beyond impressed. It was slower paced and quiet but I feel that it was necessary, any faster or any more action would have taken away from the weight of the film. Handling The Undead is not your typical brain eating zombie movie. It instead eerily captures grief and the act of letting go. The makeup was wonderfully done, nothing cheesy or tacky. Went in knowing only that it was a zombie movie and left with a movie that will sit with me for a couple of days. Highly recommend to anyone with an open mind to what a zombie movie can consist of. Sometimes the scariest of things don’t have to be scary.

Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars

06/08/24

Full Review

Michael S

Excellent filmmaking, it’s not a jump scare zombie movie but it is very good

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

06/07/24

Full Review

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Thea Hvistendahl

Director

Renate Reinsve

Anna

Anders Danielsen Lie

David

Bjørn Sundquist

Mahler

Bente Børsum

Tora

Bahar Pars

Eva

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Handling the Undead: Sundance Trailer

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Handling the Undead: Trailer 1

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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.

Director: Thea Hvistendahl
Producer: Kristin Emblem, Guri Neby
Screenwriter: John Ajvide Lindqvist, Thea Hvistendahl
Distributor: NEON
Production Co: Einar Film
Rating: R
Genre: Horror, Drama, Mystery & Thriller
Original Language: Norwegian
Release Date (Theaters): May 31, 2024, Limited
Box Office (Gross USA): $19.7K
Runtime: 1h 37m