Starring Bill Murray, Adam Driver, Chloe Sevigny, Tilda Swinton, Iggy Pop, Steve Buscemi, Selena Gomez, Caleb Landry-Jones

Directed by Jim Jarmusch

Edinburgh International Film Festival

 The walking dead plague the small town of Centreville, with only three cops and a kooky mortician standing in their way…

It can be problematic when auteurist filmmakers turn their hands to such ‘lowly’ film genres as horror, fantasy, or science fiction. As is often true of mainstream ‘literary’ writers, they come fresh into a field with what they think is a new idea or a new take only to discover that the ground has been well-trodden before them. Such is the case with Jim Jarmusch’s attempt at a George Romero-style zombie movie with The Dead Don’t Die.

Jarmusch has form here, but unfortunately his zombie movie is nowhere near as good as his attempt at a vampire film with Only Lovers Left Alive (2013). That movie was lyrical, respected the genre, and had something new to offer – none of which, unfortunately, can be said for The Dead Don’t Die. That’s not to say the current film isn’t enjoyable, but neither it nor Jarmusch seem to have much new to offer, except to those who’d never go to see an out-and-out ‘horror’ movie.

Bill Murray and Adam Driver form an effective, if downbeat and melancholic, double act as the cops faced with the rising of the dead, with Chloe Sevigny seemingly tacked on as a third wheel (of all the dead who rise in this small town of just 700-or-so people, she’s the only one to encounter a relative). It’s a slow burn with an off-kilter atmosphere from the get-go; these characters are already offbeat before anything strange happens. An early attempt at ham-fisted meta-comedy quickly misfires and unfortunately reappears near the end, an indulgence that is not as clever or as funny as Jarmusch seems to think it is and which should have been left on the cutting room floor.

More fun is Tilda Swinton’s Scottish mortician, who takes sharp right-angle turns while walking, addresses everyone by their full name, and practises a unique form of post-mortem make-up on her ‘clients’. There’s a climatic twist to her character that may explain all her idiosyncrasies, but which seems thrown in and of little relevance to the rest of the picture. Also worth noting is Tom Waits as the Greek chorus character of Hermit Bob, who seems curiously unfazed by the walking dead.

Jarmusch’s zombies are effectively (and surprisingly gorily) realised, and he deserves accolades for the genius move of casting Iggy Pop as a coffee-seeking zombie. All the dead seem to be searching out their past life addictions (an idea lifted wholesale from Romero) with some hunting for ‘wi-fi’ while other seek ‘Chardonnay’.

In interviews, Jarmusch has justified his movie by saying ‘I wanted to make a ridiculous, stupid film with actors I loved’, but that’s simply not enough for a discerning, paying audience. There are characters (a trio of ‘Cleveland hipsters’, lead by Selena Gomez) who are simply brought in to be zombie fodder, and others (another trio, this time escapees from a youth detention centre) who simply disappear, their narrative threads unresolved. There is a great explanation for the dead rising, though, and lovely shots of a purple cloud-wreathed moon, so take your compensations where you find them, I guess…

Verdict: Not as clever, original, or as funny as its makers think it is, The Dead Don’t Die provides middling amusement, but many of its ideas are dead-on-arrival. 6/10

Brian J. Robb

 

The Dead Don’t Die was screened at the Edinburgh International Film Festival and is released across the UK from 12 July.