Label: Universal Pictures Home Entertainment
Region Code: A
Rating: R
Duration: 104 Minutes
Audio: English DTS-HD MA 5.1, English Dolby Digital 2.0, Latin American Spanish DTS Digital Surround 5.1 with Optional english Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.78:1)
Director: Jim Jarmusch
Cast: Bill Murray, Adam Driver, Tilda Swinton, Chloë Sevigny, Steve Buscemi, Danny Glover, Caleb Landry Jones, Selena Gomez and Tom Waits
Anyone coming into The Dead Don't Die (2019) expecting a standard issue zom-com is in for a sad bit of disappointment I'm afraid, but for fans of Jim Jarmusch's deadpan comedies filtered through the Romero-verse of the undead this is amusing stuff in my opinion. Opening in the rural village of
Centerville we have Chief of Police Cliff Robertson (Bill Murray, Ghostbusters) and Officer Ronnie Peterson (Adam Driver, BlacKkKlansman) driving through the local cemetery seeking the local eccentric Hermit Bob (singer/songwriter Tom Waits, Mystery Men) who keeps an off-the-grid encampment in the nearby woods. Hermit Bob is suspected of stealing chickens from a local farmer, the MAGA-hat wearing Trump supporter Frank Miller (Steve Buscemi, The Big Lebowski), who steals the show here. How the chief handles this encounter, even after the hermit fires a gun in his direction, is very low-key, establishing the idiosyncratic ways of this film and it's characters and how they will handle the soon-to-bee zombie apocalypse.
We get lots of small town characters, we have nice guy Hank (Danny Glover, Predator 2), a local comic shop proprietor Bobby (Caleb Landry Jones, Welcome the Stranger), Chloë Sevigny (Gummo) as a female deputy, indie-stalwart Larry Fessenden (Habit) as a pet-friendly motel manager, and pop-singer Selena Gomez as a hipster travelling through town with a couple of friends. Most bizarrely of all is Tilda Swinton (Orlando) as an oddball Scottish undertaker who runs the local mortuary, with an interests in both Buddhism, swordplay and alien encounters.
The zombie origins come by way of large scale shale oil fracking that has seemingly caused their Earth to spin of it's axis in addition to some strange lunar vibes, with the undead rising from their graves and causing some carnage around town. Things start off small with a pair of unfortunate waitresses at the local diner being torn apart by some coffee drinking zombies, these initial undead are played by Sarah Driver (Stranger Than Paradise) and proto-punk rocker Iggy Pop (Coffee & Cigarettes). The zombie designs 5look very Romero-esque, but with a bit of a twist when, film's protagonists decapitate the undead instead of gore we get wisps of black smoke, which I thought was a cool but unfortunately gore-sapping invention. The film is really light on the bloodier aspects of a zombie film, choosing instead to lean heavy on deadpan humor.
The comedy is off-kilter which is not unusual for director Jarmusch, there's a strange breaking of the fourth wall with the characters referencing the film their in and it's director, plus we get recurring motifs like the omnipresent title song "The Dead Don't Die" by country singer Sturgill Simpson, and lines of repeated dialogue like Officer Peterson constantly saying "this isn't going to end well", and indeed it doesn't, along with the various characters commenting on the same horrific scene by saying "What the heck was it, a wild animal? Several wild animals?". It's not laugh out loud funny as comedies go but I did find it quite amusing, which is about my summation of the film as whole, not a great zombie film but an amusing excursion into the undead with Jarmusch in the driver's seat, helped along by a fun cast who deliver offbeat and deadpan humor throughout.
Audio/Video: The Dead Don't Die arrives on Blu-ray+DVD Combo from Universal in 1080p HD Widescreen framed in 1.78:1 widescreen. The digitally shot film looks strong on Blu-ray, everything is crisp, nicely detailed and with good looking color reproduction and saturation. Audio comes by way of an English DTS-HD MA 5.1 with optional English subtitles. It's a solid mix with some nice atmospheric use of the surrounds throughout.
Extras are rather slim for this one, just three very brief featurettes that really don't add up to much, though we do get a Movie Anywhere digital copy of the film. The single disc release comes housed in a standard Blu-ray keecase with a one-sided sleeve of artwork featuring the original movie poster design. The accompanying
slipcover features the same artwork with embossed lettering and features on both the spine and front cover, which is cool.
Special Features:
- Bill Murray: Zombie Hunting Action Star – Bill Murray discusses his fear of being typecast as an action hero (1 min)
- Behind-the-Scenes of The Dead Don’t Die – A collection of behind the scenes moments from the set of The Dead Don’t Die (3 min)
- Stick Together – Jim Jarmusch’s frequent collaborators talk about his filmmaking style, and what makes The Dead Don’t Die stand out from other zombie films (5 min)
The Dead Don't Die (2019) is a bit of a letdown if you're looking for a straight-up undead film and what that usually entails, but if you dig Jarmusch's deadpan-style comedies there's a lot here to love with it being wrapped in the trappings of a Romero-style undead film, that if not absolutely funny I at least found very amusing.