Handling the Undead, a superb first feature from Thea Hvistendahl, might remind viewers with a certain taste of Pet Sematary, if that story was generated by an AI-powered entity based on the instincts of the still living Stephen King and the very dead Franz Kafka.
The slowness of the Kafka half might repel certain viewers. But the incorporation of genre elements suggests that a wider release of this film could be rewarded. Smart marketing would lean into the film’s horror components for general audiences. There is also the “reunion” of Renate Reinsve and Anders Danielsen Lie, last seen together in The Worst Person In the World, although they are not lovers here.
We begin the first of the film’s three narrative strands following an elderly father whose daughter Anna (Reinsve) is struggling with the loss of her son. Hvistendahl makes it clear that the loss has destroyed what may have been a great relationship between father and daughter. Moved by grief and his daughter’s quiet devastation, the old man heads to his grandson’s graveside.
While there, the city experiences a series of unusual events — birds flock in the skies noisily, a piercing sound rings out, car alarms blare — culminating in a power outage. This is routine stuff in many cities around the world, but not in a well-off European city like Oslo. By morning, Grandpa hears sounds from the grave. It’s his grandson in there. He will do something about those sounds. First step: get a shovel.
Elsewhere, a woman who had kissed her partner David (Lie) goodbye and then died in an accident shortly afterwards appears to come back to life, confounding the hospital, her partner and, later, her kids. In a different household, an elderly woman finds her late lover in her kitchen. The film focuses on these three households, even as mass resurrections seem to be a city-wide occurrence.Nobody knows why this reanimation of the dead is happening. All that is clear is that the living will carry on with the recently undead. For David, this means leaving Eva at the hospital under supervision. For Anna and her father, this is another chance to care for her lost offspring. For the elderly lady, romance — never mind the non-reciprocity — is back.
In Hvistendahl’s hands, the story, which is adapted from a John Ajvide Lindqvist novel, is an exploration of the wrecking power of grief and the brain-eating nature of enduring love.
In every case, the persons left behind are confronted with the altered body of their loved ones—there’s decay, there’s mangling—but each is willing to accept whatever fraction of the body has returned in hopes that all of what they once were can be coached or loved back to existence. The consuming nature of this very human hope is what gives Handling the Undead its power. And for most of the film, the director handles the results of that hope delicately, never really overdoing potentially graphic scenes.
There is, however, one scene that should give animal lovers pause. It makes absolute sense in the universe occupied by the film, but that won’t stop some viewers from averting their eyes. In the sense of the cruelty depicted, the film is connected to Speak No Evil, another slow-burn picture from a Scandinavian filmmaker that received a Sundance premiere. (Quick! Someone commission an investigation into Nordic filmmaking’s cool embrace of violent perversity.)
For most of the film’s first half, viewers will be watching a psychological drama with surreal elements. That changes ever so seamlessly as the film proceeds, buoyed by a remarkable sound design and an ultra-competent cinematography that matches the film’s somberness.
Indeed, the strong command of mood and the delicate genre switch would be commendable even for an experienced filmmaker. For a first-timer like Hvistendahl, it is worthy of sustained applause, which she received after the film’s premiere at the Sundance Festival. A star director is born? Seems so.
Director: Thea Hvistendahl
Screenwriters: John Ajvide Lindqvist, Thea Hvistendahl
Cast: Renate Reinsve, Bjørn Sundquist, Bente Børsum, Bahar Pars, Inesa Dauksta, Anders Danielsen Lie
Producers: Kristin Emblem, Guri Neby
Cinematography: Pål Ulvik Rokseth
Production design: Linda Janson
Music: Peter Raeburn
Editing: Trude Lirhus, Thomas Grotmol
Production company: Einar Film Drama
Venue: Sundance (World Cinema Dramatic Competition)
In Norwegian
Duration: 99 Min
