Handling the Undead

Synopsis

Nineteen years after Sweden's undisputed horror master John Ajvide Lindqvist's iconic novel Handling the Undead was published, Thea Hvistendahl's film world premiered at Sundance Film Festival. She wrote the script together with Lindqvist, moving the story to Oslo during a summer heat wave. 

A sudden inexplicable electrical phenomenon gives Oslo's residents collective migraine attacks, and causes all electronics to break down. Then, in an instant, it's all over. But one thing is different: the recently dead have woken up and they want to go home, throwing the lives of people in mourning into incomprehensible chaos.

More a meditation on loss and grief than a traditional zombie story, this film explores if given the chance, how far are we willing to go to hold on to physical love?

Hvistendahl's feature film debut shows a director steady and confident in her use of time. The atmosphere and constant underlying sense of unease, so characteristic in Lindqvist's book, is perfectly captured and conveyed, enhanced by exceptional photography and music.