Summary

Zombies in Oslo defy expectations in Handling the Undead, as the film focuses more on grief and its destructive power rather than on flesh-eating and panic. The undead in the film serve as reminders of the deep loss that the main characters already carry, longing for a sense of normalcy that memories alone cannot provide. While the film features unsettling physical manifestations of decay, its true horror lies in the prolonged sense of dread and the reminder of what has been lost, akin to an infection that settles in and stays.

In Oslo, a high-pitched ringing disrupts the power, turns radio stations to static, and sets off car alarms. Shortly after, the recently deceased return to life, their hearts beating just fast enough to keep them alive despite the fact their oxygen levels are well below normal. Not much more information is given about this event in Handling the Undead and what happens after isn’t exactly what you’d expect from a zombie movie. Instead, the film that unfurls at a languid pace turns out to be a rumination on grief and the ways it can destroy people from the inside out.

Centered on three families, Handling the Undead is expansive in scope. Anna, played by The Worst Person in the World breakout Renate Reinsve, and her father are grieving the death of Anna’s young son Elias. David (Anders Danielsen Lie, another star from Worst Person) and his wife, Eva (Bahar Pars) are leaving for a night out, their reluctant daughter Flora left to babysit Kian. Lastly, an elderly woman named Elisabet, played by Olga Damani in a near-silent role, is burying her partner.

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Handling The Undead Is A Different Kind Of Zombie Movie
Bahar Pars in Handling the Undead. 

These three groups of people will be impacted by what’s to come, but Handling the Undead takes its time to get there. Its pacing is downright glacial for a good chunk of the film’s first quarter, but soon enough, the dead appear. Elisabet’s dead partner turns up in their kitchen. Anna’s father digs up Elias’ coffin after hearing him knock against the buried wood. Eva wakes up on the operating table after a terrible accident left her dead. These zombies aren’t hungry for flesh, though (at least at first).

The zombies linger like apparitions. Elisabet gives her lover a tender bath. Anna, after her father saves her from an attempted suicide, cradles Elias in his bed. David sits next to Eva in the hospital room. No one is sure what is going on, but around the city, graves are dug up and sirens remind us that our trio aren’t the only ones experiencing this strange phenomenon.

Renate Reinsve in Handling the Undead. 

Handling the Undead is more concerned with loss than it is with chunks of flesh and panicking crowds. The zombies are walking reminders of the grief that Anna, Elisabet, and David already carry with them, the desire to have that person back, even for one second, so that everything feels normal. But memories won’t suffice — they are distorted and disfigured by time.

Handling the Undead is more concerned with loss than it is with chunks of flesh and panicking crowds.

Handling The Undead Is All Dread, Little Horror
Olga Damani in Handling the Undead. 

These distortions, manifesting as physical rot, are an unsettling sight. The makeup and effects team sells the undead horror with eerie effectiveness. The glazed-over eyes of Elisabet’s lover are unmoving even as they dance together. Eva’s face, damaged from the accident and the rot that is beginning to set in, is an unsettling picture of deterioration. It’s all quite disturbing, even if it does not crescendo to true terror.

When the violence and flesh-eating do begin, Handling the Undead remains a muted affair. The film’s most disturbing moment has nothing to do with zombie-on-human violence at all. Instead, there’s a prolonged sense of dread bubbling just beneath the surface — that it doesn’t boil over feels like the point. Like grief, like the undead, this dread is there as a reminder, a placeholder for what’s been lost. Handling the Under is not an effective horror movie, but its zombie-drama formula allows for a portrait of pain that settles in and stays like an infection.

Handling the Undead premiered at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival in the World Dramatic Competition section.

Handling the Undead Release Date February 9, 2024 Director Thea Hvistendahl Cast Renate Reinsve , Bjørn Sundquist , Bente Børsum , Anders Danielsen Lie , Bahar Pars , Inesa Dauksta Runtime 97 Minutes Writers Thea Hvistendahl , John Ajvide Lindqvist