HANDLING THE UNDEAD (aka Håndtering av udøde, 2024)

Streaming on Hulu from NEON Films!
Directed by Thea Hvistendahl.
Written by Thea Hvistendahl, John Ajvide Lindqvist (screenplay), from a novel by John Ajvide Lindqvist.
Check out the trailer here!!

No one knows how or why, but the dead begin to rise in a small Norwegian community, but instead of the world devolving into chaos, three grieving families slowly and quietly deal with the possibility that their recently deceased loved one has returned.

I lost my own father when I was a young kid and I think this is a common dream for those who lose someone at a young age, but I often have vivid dreams of my father, simply showing up at the breakfast table one day as if he hadn’t died at all. This is always a dream I wake from with a deep feeling of unease, as I have gone through the process of accepting he wouldn’t be a part of my life anymore, but still, there is this irrational sliver of hope that someday, somehow, I will have some kind of interaction with this important figure in my life again. HANDLING THE UNDEAD deals with that broad spectrum of uncomfortable feelings by splitting its time pretty evenly, cutting to three families dealing with the ramifications of the return of their loved ones.

A family whose mother died in a car crash are relieved when all of a sudden, her dead body seems to come to live in the hospital. A grieving grandfather and mother are shocked to find their young boy alive when they hear rumblings coming from his recently buried casket. And an elderly woman is shocked to find her recently deceased partner simply shows up at her doorstep. HANDLING THE UNDEAD deals with this uncomfortable feeling of the grieving process interrupted by the possibility that the loved one hasn’t died after all.

And a thorough analysis of how we react to death does not make for the most hilarious of movies. Everything is handled in the most serious of ways, through a morose, static, and washed-out lens. HANDLING THE UNDEAD doesn’t pull its punches and forces the viewer to accept these intense emotions whether they want to or not. One is never given an opportunity to laugh and even when the grieving families might feel positive feelings seeing their loved ones again, there is still an ever-present dire tone to it all. Those who have returned from the grip of death are not the same people who these people once knew. They come back stiff, silent, and disorientated. They are unable to show love back to those who they return to. There does seem to be a vague notion the undead seem to have of their past lives as they seem to be drawn back to their loved ones, but are unable to express anything else.

The stories play out as heartbreaking as one would imagine. First, each family member is shocked and ecstatic to see their loved ones again, ignoring the fact that the undead are not acting like they once did. But as time goes on, this magic fades and we are left with that dangling feeling of “what do we do now?” And once the answer comes, it is equally devastating. I don’t want to give anything away, but the film soon devolves into a palpable horror film that wrecked my soul after watching.

If you’re depressed or recently have lost a loved one, HANDLING THE UNDEAD is not a film I would recommend for you. It is a film that left me in such a dark place, I had to take a break from horror for a little while. The feelings this dark film drudges up are not comfortable, but they feel necessary. It deals with the complicated emotions involved in taking care of a loved one who can no longer return that love and asks questions about why we keep loved ones, sickly relatives, and terminally diagnosed animals around, even though they no longer are the beautiful souls we once knew. Is it selfish to keep an animal in pain alive if it means saving us from the pain of experiencing the death of a loved one? And where is that line indicating that death is more of a relief for all than the burden of ongoing care? I don’t know the answers to these questions and through my life, I have had to make these hard decisions about pets, only to long for one more minute with these lost souls. It’s human to fear death and try to avoid it, but it is inhuman to prolong suffering and push back the inevitable. Those are the utterly serious issues HANDLING THE DEAD deals with in a mature and deft way. This is a sophisticated and mature film dealing with uncomfortable, yet unavoidable truths about life and death. Just prepare yourself, if you take a chance with this tragically beautiful yet harrowing film.