Review of The Dead Don’t Die

The Dead Don’t Die: An experiment in boredom as humor

Jim Jarmusch already has a very specific audience. Add in the homage to a movie you’ve never seen from 1968 in the deadest genre this side of Western, and you’ve pretty much targeted less than 1% of all moviegoers. I am not in that 1%.

I loved Down by Law, which is my only real experience with Jim Jarmusch. Gritty, Coen-esque, and Roberto Benigni trying to understand English. It was a little fun, a little interesting, and I wouldn’t recommend in on the record to a lot of folks without a caveat of some sort. I have a rep to protect. The Dead Don’t Die did not resemble that at all. Maybe it resembled Night of the Living Dead. Maybe it didn’t try to resemble anything. But it certainly did not resemble entertainment.

My overwhelming feeling was that of boredom. And in places where there wasn’t boredom, there was confusion. There was a fourth wall break early, which was odd. And toward the end, there was another. It was out of place and I didn’t get it. Deadpool, I got. Ferris Bueller was consistent. This one seemed to be in the place of a story rather than being part of one.

There was a part where the zombies were looking at their cell phones mumbling “Wi-fi” in a zombie tone of voice. I thought maybe that was supposed to be a commentary on how we’re the zombies and society is – and then it was over in 20 seconds. I don’t think there was anything second-level to really interpret there, and if there was, it failed. At least with me. But again, I’m not one of the less than 1%.

The dialogue and acting seemed to be intentionally bad in parts. But I don’t know why. I also got the distinct impression he was trying to use the absence of humor to create humor. Ballsy, yes. But also ineffective. Other than the zombie apocalypse being caused by polar fracking, there was zero interesting or original about this movie. Nothing happened. It made me question whether Down by Law was even that good. This movie was so unenjoyable, it made me enjoy a movie I saw 30 years ago less. That’s how bad this was.

2/10

Dustin Fisher