The world could always use more zombie movies, especially moody foreign language efforts, and Handling the Undead delivers exactly that. International releases tend to go missing among the masses sometimes, but while mainstream usually rely on cheap jumpscares and gratuitous gore, this Norwegian film stands out from the crowd by leaning into moral conundrums and melancholia. Handling the Undead is the fiction feature debut from writer-director, Thea Hvistendahl, and the is based on the novel from acclaimed author, John Ajvide Lindqvist.
Knowing this story comes from the same mind that spawned Let the Right One In should suitably prepare you for the bleak tale to come in this . Taking place in Oslo, the recently-deceased return to the land of the living after an electrical surge, leaving three families with big decisions to make: do they embrace their lost loved ones, or fear the walking dead? Slow and steady wins the race From the opening scene of Handling the Undead, it’s clear things will be a little different. Haunting choir music provides the backdrop for a cold relationship between a father and daughter, while an elderly woman lays her wife to rest, and a man watches his partner’s life slip away in a hospital bed.
There’s no real sense of dread, but plenty of pain. The camerawork of cinematographer, Pål Ulvik Rokseth, is invasive yet delicate, lingering just close enough to capture the malaise in the room without ever disrupting the grieving process. Even as the .