Handling the Undead

R

Released May 31

1h 37m

Horror

Drama

Mystery & Thriller

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for Handling the Undead: Sundance Trailer

List

74%

Tomatometer

73 Reviews

48%

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

Bee Delores

Horrorverse

It's far less about action-packed sequences and tons of blood and far more about the emotional response to a zombie apocalypse.

Jul 11, 2024

Full Review

Sharai Bohannon

Horror Movie Blog

It feels like I sat down at my favorite restaurant, ordered my favorite meal, and then discovered a new chef was in the kitchen. It’s familiar, but it’s not quite right.

Jun 27, 2024

Full Review

Rob Gonsalves

Rob's Movie Vault

One can be grateful for not having to stare at gory slaughter and still wish there were something here to break the suffocating trance of sadness.

Rated: C

Jun 27, 2024

Full Review

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Jerod S

Slow paced look into how 3 families feel when their recently deceased loved one comes back to life...kinda. It's horror, not in the sense that it's scary to watch, but more so scary to think about. The reanimated are slow and look smelly.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

07/06/24

Full Review

Audience Member

arrogant, pretentious and dull. way too far 'up its own butt' and too concerned with turning every scene into an art shoot. pacing, plot and character development suffer needlessly. ultimately not worth the patience it requires to sit through it.

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

07/04/24

Full Review

Bijou S

A carefully crafted meditation on grief through the lens of a zombie apocalypse. The action is a slow burn; intentional in its pacing crafting a contemplative examination of how loss and grief destroys characters from the inside out. Beginning with a careful assessment of how characters engage with their newly resurrected loved ones, we watch as their bereavement is not rectified but merely given a corporeal focus. The brief moments of actual body horror effectively juxtapose the serene, luscious cinematography and gentle orchestral soundtrack. With the dawning realisation that the returned undead are not passive, reanimated cadavers but something more insidious entirely serves as a nuanced expression of how grief and loss can either eat you alive or ultimately set you free. However you want to view this, it serves as a well executed reimagining of the zombie trope. Not for everyone but definitely worth the effort.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

07/03/24

Full Review

Valerii Ege D

I will never understand why I watch someone's teeth brushing at all. I can say many things, but as a wanna-be filmmaker, I don't want to be disrespectful, so I will stfu and just say the movie is not my cup of tea.

Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars

07/03/24

Full Review

Jay C

God-awful. Probably the slowest film we've ever watched. The director is in love with the slow-pan of the camera. Just horrible...all of it.

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

06/24/24

Full Review

Voodoo V

I did not consider this Horror, it was more like a tragic drama with zombie like dead people. Slow paced with a focus on emotions instead of dialogue.

Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars

06/22/24

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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9 Films We Can’t Wait to See at Sundance 2024

Handling the Undead: Sundance Trailer

2:05

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
Release Date (Streaming): Jun 18, 2024
Box Office (Gross USA): $19.7K
Runtime: 1h 37m

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