‘Handling The Undead’: Sundance Review

Dir: Thea Hvistendahl. Norway. 2024. 99mins

When the deceased return throughout a scorching summer time in Oslo, they bring about with them not the standard lurching carnage however the doubtlessly extra harmful baggage of grief. Let The Proper One In creator John Ajvide Lindqvist has tailored his 2005 novel in collaboration with Thea Hvistendahl, who additionally directs, they usually give zombies an identical melancholy makeover to the vampire in that story. Hvistendahl’s debut function, Dealing with The Undead maintains a rigor mortis-strong grip on the temper as this more and more chilling triptych unfolds.

Sluggish-build horror powered by an amplified sound design and a broody rating

The slow-build horror, powered by an amplified sound design and a broody rating, will probably be launched in Norway on February 9 after its Sundance world premiere and European bow at Gothenburg. Neon has acquired the US and UK rights, the place it’s extra more likely to spark curiosity with audiences searching for chills that stem from the considered what would possibly occur, moderately than graphic on-screen horror. That The Worst Particular person In The World stars Renate Reinsve and Anders Danielsen Lie each function may also assist promote it to arthouse crowds..

Reinsve performs bereaved mum Anna, who lives along with her aged father (Bjørn Sundquist), his ragged breath as he returns to her condominium an early indication that the sound design from Bent Holm and his staff will probably be key. He would possibly as effectively be a ghost for all the eye his daughter provides him. A fallen dinosaur and a handful of different toys signpost their grief.

Danielsen Lie in the meantime is David, a comic residing together with his companion Eva (Bahar Pars) and two youngsters (Inesa Dauksta and Kian Hansen). An accident is quickly to go away them in a state of limbo as effectively. Within the third strand, the aged Tora (Bente Børsum) says goodbye to her useless companion Elisabet (Olga Damani) at a funeral, little realising that this won’t be their final farewell.

The useless don’t instantly rise to this event, nevertheless. As an alternative Hvistendahl lets a cool temper of contemplation settle within the areas they used to inhabit. The digicam of Pal Ulvik Rokseth drifts across the rooms of the residing: in a single, a ringing telephone shatters the silence; in one other, David waits anxiously for information. But when the grief felt by these individuals is uncooked, it solely turns into extra acute after an odd energy surge strikes town – signalled by a cacophony of automobile alarms, the hum of electrical overhead cables and birds twisting in murmurations. That is the set off for his or her family members, in quite a lot of methods, to finish up again of their lives. 

Whereas they appear like the one that was left behind, all three zombies are mute. The sound of breath once more turns into very important as we hear the hitched inhaling of Anna’s son, the buzzing of flies a sign of the state of decomposition. Elisabet is extra lately deceased however, a minimum of at first, nearly unresponsive as Tora cares for her, whereas medical doctors are confused by exactly what’s going on with Eva. 

The spare scripting makes us aware of the opposite sounds that fill the silence; the completely different rhythms of breath, the clicking of a fan or, because the movie lastly takes a flip in a extra horrific route, the snap of enamel. Past the sound design, Peter Raeburn’s music strikes seamlessly from low rumbling and digital moments to extra elegiac string and piano-driven scoring.

Hvistendahl provides her ensemble time and area to ship the conflicted feelings they’re feeling, a mix of shock and longing enjoying out on their faces and of their actions, with the commonly middle-distance digicam closing in at key momentas. As these useless individuals push their nearest and dearest away not by means of violence, however just by their presence, Dealing with The Undead turns into much less about holding somebody shut and extra about letting them go.