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Handling the Undead

R Released May 31 1h 37m Horror Drama Mystery & Thriller TRAILER for Handling the Undead: Sundance Trailer List
74% Tomatometer 77 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. Read More Read Less
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Handling the Undead

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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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Critics Reviews

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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 Emilio Luna El antepenúltimo mohicano It subverts the conception of 'zombie movies' and, despite the distance with which the characters are described, carries enormous emotionality. The Hvistendahl-Lindqvist duo delves into the feeling of loss with great sensitivity. [Full review in Spanish] Rated: 4/5 Aug 6, 2024 Full Review Anthony Mullins FILMINK (Australia) While it might lack the jump scares and body count of a typical zombie film, Handling the Undead has a beating heart that delivers a surprisingly tender story … Rated: 14/20 Aug 3, 2024 Full Review Katelyn Nelson Daily Grindhouse Thea Hvistendahl’s feature length debut is a tender dance with the material at hand. She is unafraid to make space for the parts of death and life that make us angry or sad or disgusted, even as she paints them with a tender hand. Aug 1, 2024 Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

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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 Read all reviews
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Handling the Undead

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Handling the Undead

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Movie Info

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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