Sundance Film Festival Review (Sunday Scaries Edition): ‘Handling the Undead’ Slowly Contemplates Grief But Commits an Unforgivable Error

I’ve long railed against unnecessary animal deaths in film. Almost never can a movie justify killing an animal, especially a household pet. Cats and dogs are often the victims, but in Handling the Undead, it’s a rabbit that’s given the fate. Moreover, this work opts to make the death so gratuitous and upsetting that my Sundance Film Festival screener had a warning. It’s animal cruelty, which immediately sank what was already a ponderous horror hybrid. There’s no justification for the scene, except shock. Instead, it just got my contempt.

Handling the Undead would have been too slow for me on its own, but you throw in that animal cruelty and I was just completely removed from the film. A different hand at the wheel and this use of zombies as a metaphor for grief could well have bowled me over, given my sensitivities to a movie of that nature. Alas.

One hot summer day in Oslo, the dead mysteriously begin to awaken. Sure, there’s an electrical field around the city, and everyone suddenly has a migraine, but the explanation is never given. The dog have just risen. For three families, some of which are already in mourning, it creates a confusion situation.

Mahler (Bjørn Sundquist) and his daughter Anna (Renate Reinsve) are mourning the sudden passing of his grandson/her son. Tora (Bente Børsum) has just said her final goodbyes to her wife at the funeral home. David (Anders Danielsen Lie) and his children are facing life without his wife/their mother Eva (Bahar Pars). Then, they all return. Alive and silent, they’re essentially the catatonic and rotting versions of themselves. Each family opts to handle this in different ways, especially as their loved ones begin to display some disturbing tendancies.

It was admittedly nice to see Renate Reinsve again, with the added bonus of her co-star Anders Danielsen Lie from The Worst Person in the World appearing here as well. They don’t share scenes, which is a shame, and have far less to do, but Reinsve does turn in solid work. Bente Børsum and Bjørn Sundquist are moving, too, given the nature of their roles, that’s sort of all they have to offer. The supporting cast includes the aforementioned Bahar Pars, as well as Olga Damani and Jan Hrynkiewicz, among others.

Thea Hvistendahl directs and co-writes with John Ajvide Lindqvist. The aesthetic and makeup work is impressive, but the story is static. Then, there’s the animal cruelty. They never will be ever to explain why they think they deserve to include that, but they don’t. Moreover, they linker on images and sounds for far longer than needed, which just makes a terrible decision even worse. It comes as the third act is taking a turn, sure, but it just should not exist.

Handling the Undead has no right to include the disturbing scene that it does. Almost by default, it’s the worst thing I’ll have seen at Sundance, since the aforementioned moment is unforgivable. I can’t in good conscience even recommend this to arthouse horror fans. The mood is glum and the pace is slow, but the big sin here is one moment of going for shock.

SCORE: ★★