Zombies do not need to be fast sometimes, it is enjoyable as a gimmick. However, the core aspect of zombies as a subgenre of horror is best captured through the sense of impending doom, the idea that there is no hope and something that is deadly is on its way. Done right, the slow pace can add to the horror by allowing it to sink deep into the audience’s bones over an extended period of breathless seconds. In this one criterion, “Handling the Undead” is indeed a brilliant movie in regard to zombies.
Thea Hvistendahl, a Norwegian director, in her movie debut, quotes this as a ‘drama with hints of horror’ and rightly so, for even when the movie lets loose with stere optimal horror scenes, which include an isolated cabin and a woman bathing full naked in a lake it is still melancholic. A collection of quiet and beautifully composed scenes has been incorporated into the film that revolves around three different storylines. While the color palette is gloomy, there is a lack of dialogue and the cinematography is pretty elegant.
The subdued style of the film goes well with the fascinating question it asks What would happen if we turned to reality for a moment if the dead began to return? “Handling the Undead” is an adaptation of a novel by John Ajvide Lindqvist who is also known for “Let the Right One In” and “Border” where he once again steers clear of over-the-top magical interventions in his narrative. Their dead relatives can be brought back, but it is logical to assume that the characters’ imaginations could cope with the freak electromagnetic event being the explanation (which is how the authors present it) for the radio static pollution that interrupts the bird migration patterns.
That makes such theories fairly, if not very, plausible. So much so that it would be sad, helpless, and foolish. The last thing Mahler (Bjørn Sundquist) does when he hears of his dead grandson banging on the vaulted lid of his coffin is to shriek. He gets the shovel and goes on to unearth the Boy. Tora (Bente Børsum) is elated to see her partner Tora (Olga Damani) since she has just returned from a rendezvous with him, but he meets her at the door. And David (Anders Danielsen Lie) is puzzled by a doctor’s assertion that his beloved Eva (Bahar Pars) was claimed dead only for him to discover later that she wasn’t. But that is not what he wants to focus on; rather, it is the more optimistic side of what the doctor said that he prefers to cling to.
Now throw in Renate Reinsve, who plays an apathetic Mother to the undeveloped son and the movie comes out to portray a sweet symphony of numb despair and fabricated hope for a duration of 97 minutes. We are aware the characters do try to have a glass-half-full approach, however, that is futile, we’ve already witnessed a depressing movie that ended in a hopeless feeling. This adds so much to the cringe and heartbreak aspect of the movie, where people try to touch their loved ones who have sadly departed but have been transformed to look odd (like Elisabet who has a purple back from lying in a coffin filled with blood) or interestingly are styled like a zombie-like character straight out of a George Romero movie.
All of the harsh emotions that Hvistendahl’s film evokes are even at times fascinating. However, the pace at which it moves can only be described as “slow” or “consistently fast.” Hvistendahl makes up for this slow pace by ensuring that still footage of black hallways provides viewers with quite a bit of suspense, still, some viewers do lose interest in scenes where the tone does not help the story. The good news is that this is so unusual that it fails to destroy the tonal spell that Hvistendahl put so much effort into and creates a different impression from her film.
However, whether or not they’re appropriate in general, given how slow the movie is in general, there are also a few areas that “Handling the Undead” cannot afford to fail. This is one zombie movie that you don’t want to view after midnight.
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