{"id":31908,"date":"2019-10-10T21:52:00","date_gmt":"2019-10-11T01:52:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/?p=31908"},"modified":"2019-10-10T21:54:26","modified_gmt":"2019-10-11T01:54:26","slug":"the-dead-dont-die-2019","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/2019\/10\/10\/the-dead-dont-die-2019\/","title":{"rendered":"The Dead Don\u2019t Die (2019)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>I have to say that I liked \u201cThe Dead Don\u2019t Die.\u201d It feels a lot like Jim Jarmusch\u2019s \u201cThe Dead Don\u2019t Die\u201d doesn\u2019t just seem to feel like his effort to give his own spin to the sub-genre, but it also feels like the proving ground for the man to be as bizarre and often stupid as he possibly can. With \u201cThe Dead Don\u2019t Die\u201d it\u2019s a bit of an experimental and bizarre zombie comedy that has absolutely no breaks on. It throws everything at the wall to see what sticks, from terrible breaking of the fourth wall, clunky symbolism (chairs that look like tombstones! Hah! Get it?), sub-plots that go nowhere, and space ships.<\/p>\n

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The small, sleepy town of Centerville, USA is witness to the beginning of an unusual event as Earth\u2019s axis is thrown off, prompting a major change in nature. Everything from the animals to basic plant life has all begun acting absolutely bonkers and the locals are curious as to why. It\u2019s not long before the dead begin inexplicably rising from their graves, and they begin drifting around their old home, staggering to their old stomping grounds and feasting on the locals. Now its up to three local officers, and a Scottish katana wielding mortician to figure out what\u2019s happening.<\/p>\n

Much of \u201cThe Dead Don\u2019t Die\u201d feels wholly incomplete or half baked, and Jarmusch seems to want to mask that by insisting on humor that is just clunky and frankly stupid. He spends an obscene amount of time establishing the characters of Centersville for reasons never actually justified within the structure of the narrative. There\u2019s even an implication that perhaps the whole movie is just a delusion from the mind of Tom Waits\u2019 eccentric survivalist character, but nothing is ever confirmed for the audience. I don\u2019t mind a healthy bit of ambiguity, but any of the tricks Jarmusch pulls in the narrative would be considered cheap with a lesser known director.<\/p>\n

He sets up characters for minutes only for them to die off screen, conflicts are propped up without any pay off, and there are characters that literally run off the movie to whom we never see again (the spaceship\u2014c-can someone explain that to me?). Even after reading an interview with Jarmusch who explains a lot of the film\u2019s beats, \u201cThe Dead Don\u2019t Die\u201d stills just feels like half a script with zombies tacked on. That said, Jarmusch knows how to direct some damn fine moments of horror, even staging some really spooky moments of the dead rising from the grave and drifting in to the town. Jarmusch compensates for the lack of explanation for the zombies\u2019 existence with some great zombie designs.<\/p>\n

There are also some creepy moments of zombies terrorizing the locals, including the scene in the youth detention center, especially as the only three surviving members look on without a hint as to how to escape. The climax in the police car with the zombies mentally terrorizing the surviving characters also worked well. In either case, \u201cThe Dead Don\u2019t Die\u201d is a solid zombie movie that works more than it doesn\u2019t, even when Jarmusch comes off more confused than trying to re-think the sub-genre. It\u2019s by no means as smart or original as it thinks it is, but it\u2019s worth experimenting with if you\u2019re in the mood for something completely out of the ordinary.<\/p>\n