Handling the Undead – first-look review | Little White Lies

Festivals

Han­dling the Undead – first-look review

28 Jan 2024

Words by Hannah Strong

A young woman standing in a grassy field near a boat on a still lake, wearing a colourful dress and sleeveless shirt.
A young woman standing in a grassy field near a boat on a still lake, wearing a colourful dress and sleeveless shirt.
Three fam­i­lies reck­on with the dead return­ing from the grave in Thea Hvis­ten­dahl’s glacial hor­ror drama.

A griev­ing moth­er and grand­fa­ther attempt to go about their dai­ly rou­tine after the death of her young son. An elder­ly woman says good­bye to her recent­ly deceased part­ner. A hus­band is dev­as­tat­ed after his wife dies in a car acci­dent. These three nar­ra­tives nev­er quite con­verge, but all find their tra­jec­to­ries altered when a mys­te­ri­ous event rean­i­mates the dead in Thea Hvistendahl’s debut feature.

Adapt­ed from John Ajvide Lindqvist’s nov­el of the same name (the author behind Let the Right One In and Bor­der), Hvistendahl’s take on the zom­bie genre devi­ates from the famil­iar with its glacial pace. The sparse script and spar­ing use of the typ­i­cal vio­lence asso­ci­at­ed with zom­bie movies are a refresh­ing change; we learn pre­cious lit­tle about the char­ac­ters on screen, which adds a grow­ing uneasi­ness to the storytelling.

Although it’s hint­ed that the phe­nom­e­non has awok­en the dead across the city (and poten­tial­ly the world) the sto­ry remains stead­fast­ly focused on the three sep­a­rate sto­ries. Anna (Renate Reinsve) and her father (Bjørn Sundquist) attempt to pro­tect her rean­i­mat­ed son from the author­i­ties. Tora (Bente Bør­sum) lov­ing­ly cleans up Elis­a­bet (Olga Damani) in their home. David (Anders Danielsen Lie) attempts to explain to his chil­dren Flo­ra (Inesa Dauk­s­ta) and Kian (Kian Hansen) that their moth­er died, but only temporarily.

The three groups all react to the return of their loved ones in sim­i­lar ways, which does feel a lit­tle repet­i­tive – it would have been inter­est­ing to see some diver­gence in their feel­ings – but the trans­for­ma­tion of a zom­bie film into some­thing slow­er and stranger than we’re used to is nov­el. Hvistendahl’s acute­ly close focus puts us direct­ly in the room with her char­ac­ters, whose grief has ren­dered them almost cata­ton­ic in turn. The loss of her son has left Anna sui­ci­dal and unable to eat. Tora doesn’t know how to live a life with­out Elis­a­beth. David only kissed his wife good­bye hours before, briefly dis­cussing their plans to pick up a pet rab­bit for their son’s birth­day. The return of their loved ones almost brings them back to life too, but also forces them to turn a blind eye to some obvi­ous, wor­ry­ing complications.

Hor­ror has long proven a rich prism through which film­mak­ers and screen­writ­ers can explore the thorny nature of grief, and Han­dling the Undead is a reflec­tion on the dif­fi­cul­ty of say­ing good­bye, as well as how far we might go for a few more stolen moments with a loved one. Its glacial pace and the dis­tance placed between the audi­ence and the char­ac­ters – the sta­t­ic wide shots posi­tion us as voyeurs encroach­ing on pri­vate moments – are unusu­al for a zom­bie” film, cre­at­ing some­thing haunt­ing and trag­ic, all the more shock­ing in its few tru­ly hor­ri­fy­ing moments. Instead, there’s a sense of sad­ness and dread that haunts every frame; the rolling fog that those left behind know all too well.

You might like

Accessibility Settings

Text

Applies the Open Dyslexic font, designed to improve readability for individuals with dyslexia.

Applies a more readable font throughout the website, improving readability.

Underlines links throughout the website, making them easier to distinguish.

Adjusts the font size for improved readability.

Visuals

Reduces animations and disables autoplaying videos across the website, reducing distractions and improving focus.

Reduces the colour saturation throughout the website to create a more soothing visual experience.

Increases the contrast of elements on the website, making text and interface elements easier to distinguish.