An All-Star Cast Fights Zombies in Jim Jarmusch’s The Dead Don’t Die
We all self identify as Carol Kane's chardonnay-swilling zombie.
Here’s the thing: there’s never been more zombie content than there is right now. Between films, television series, comics, and video games, we are up to our eyeballs in undead pop culture. What I mean to say is, if someone is making a new zombie film, they better have an interesting take on the subject. Like, maybe they’re a beloved indie director who assembles a killer cast of actors for a goofy zombie comedy.
Well, that director is Jim Jarmusch (Coffee and Cigarettes, Broken Flowers) and that film is The Dead Don’t Die, which features some of the best actors working today. In the trailer above, we see Bill Murray and Adam Driver play small town cops, alongside Chloe Sevigny. We also see Selena Gomez as a disaffected young woman, Tilda Swinton as a katana-wielding Scottish mortician, and both Iggy Pop and Carol Kane as thirsty zombies.
And if that weren’t enough, the film also features: Steve Buscemi, Austin Butler, RZA, Tom Waits, Danny Glover, Caleb Landry Jones, and Rosie Perez. The film’s advertising calls it “the greatest zombie cast ever disassembled” and they are not wrong. Jarmusch is no stranger to supernatural territory: his 2013 film Only Lovers Left Alive follows the love affair of Tilda Swinton and Tom Hiddleston as a pair of vampires.
Jarmusch’s zombies are capable of speech, and seem to be drawn to the things they enjoyed while they were alive, namely coffee and chardonnay. Between the quips, the cast, and Tilda Swinton doing her best Beatrix Kiddo meets Michonne, this film is definitely one we want to see.
of course, we’ve had our share of zombie comedies (zombedies?) over the years. There’s Zombieland, which is getting a sequel later this year. And of course there’s Shaun of the Dead, the pinnacle of the subgenre. We’ve seen romantic takes on zombies, with Life After Beth and Warm Bodies, as well as screwball indie comedies like Cooties and Fido. There’s even a zombie musical, last year’s delightful Anna and the Apocalypse.
Between TDDD, Zombieland 2, and the upcoming Lupita Nyong’o horror comedy Little Monsters, 2019 is shaping up to be the year of the zombie comedy.
What do you think of the trailer for The Dead Don’t Die What’s your favorite zombedy?
(via io9, image: screencap)
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