There are countless examples of videos or TV shows that have been given new life years after their release and found a spot on Netflix’s trending list. This happened recently with Jim Jarmusch’s offbeat 2019 horror film The Dead Don’t Die, which is lately being devoured by those with a Netflix subscription (it’s the editorial team’s third most popular film at the moment). And I can’t get over it.
I’m not going to lie, I’ve never felt more justified in loving something as much as I do now. I mean, it’s been five years since one of the most productive zombie apocalypse videos ever made came out and divided the public (many of my colleagues and friends didn’t like it). I’m not just saying this because The Dead Don’t Die is one of the most productive videos on Netflix lately, I’m going to start getting excited, but hear me out. . .
When The Dead Don’t Die came out, I was very excited to tell people how much I enjoyed the unconventional zombie movie about the city fighting an army of demons, and then was immediately disappointed when one of my friends still liked it. It wasn’t just in my circle either, as the film has a 54% on Rotten Tomatoes’ Tomatometer and a 38% on the Popcornmeter (the fan score).
Digging further into the matter, I went back to see what my colleagues at CinemaBlend thought about it at the time. Though we gave the movie a 3/5 rating in our official The Dead Don’t Die review, that was the highest score among staff. The average score was only 2.4/5, which was worse than Men in Black International, another movie that opened the same weekend.
Do I have bad taste or do most others fail to see the best in an uncomfortable horror-comedy starring Bill Murray, Adam Driver and Selena Gomez?
I watched the movie a couple of times after seeing it for the first time, but most of the time I left it in the back of my mind. For example, it’s become one of those movies that I only think of when I talk about Adam Driver’s most productive films or Sturgill Simpson’s “The Dead Don’t Die” on Spotify.
So, you can probably believe how surprised and extremely happy I was when I saw the star-studded zombie movie that tops Netflix’s trending list. How did this random movie that only a small organization of other people (including me) enjoyed five years ago become more popular than Barbie and Megan Fox’s sexy robot movie?But hey, I’m not trying to make sense of this, I’m just glad that more people are willing to see Bill Murray calmly deal with a zombie outbreak after all those years.
When it comes to zombie movies (or horror movies in general) with massive casts, this one is in a league of its own. Bill Murray, Adam Driver, and Chloë Sevigny all play cops, Tilda Swinton plays a katana-wielding funeral home director, Danny Glover plays a hardware store owner, Selena Gomez and a pre-Elvis Austin Butler play young travelers, Iggy Pop, RZA, and Tom Waits play random characters, and Carol Kane plays a drunk zombie looking for a bottle of chardonnay.
And that’s just part of the cast. I’m convinced that other people will get to see those actors take on (or become) zombies after all. Sure, some of the lines sound like the actors are reading their lines for the first time, but it actually adds charm to what I’ve long considered one of the most productive horror films of all time. Everyone in this movie, even the actors most associated with dramatic roles, seems to be having the time of their lives.
The Dead Don’t Die is an incredibly meta movie. It’s one of the most important meta-horror videos I’ve ever seen, and that aspect adds a lot to the film. I am pleased that now more and more people are experiencing it for themselves. Does that mean everyone likes it? No no. But other people look at him like crazy.
There are scenes where characters reference their presence in a movie when talking about the name of the song, but there’s also a moment near the end where host Ronnie Peterson tells Murray’s Cliff Roberton that he knew things would end badly. because he read it in the script that “Jim” gave him. He faces death, and Driver sits there with this bumbling, deadpan functionality talking about the script. Bright!
I don’t know how many people know this, but Sturgill Simpson can write a damn good song. He’s put out some of my favorite albums of the past decade-and-a-half, and his title track here is honestly one of the finest additions to his discography. The song is used multiple times throughout the movie, including a rather transfixing scene featuring Selena Gomez driving down a lonely country road.
Sounding like an old gospel song like “What Are You Doing in Heaven Today?”, this beautifully composed and directed country song is perfect, even without the context of the movie. Simpson’s “Breakers Roar” from her 2016 album, A Sailor’s Guide to Earth, was used masterfully in a surely surprising scene from this previous year’s Civil War, and “The Dead Don’t Die” is used in a more comedic way to fit with the tone of the zombie movie, it has a similar charming effect that helps the scene slide.
And if you haven’t already, this song is a great introduction to the work of one of the greatest and most inventive country singers living today.
There are a lot of upcoming zombie movies on the way, but I doubt we’ll see anything like The Dead Don’t Die anytime soon, or ever again. But it’s not all bad news, as we’re blessed with this silly mess of a good time.
Stream The Dead Don’t Die on Netflix.
Philip grew up in Louisiana (not New Orleans) before moving to St. Louis after graduating from Louisiana State University in Shreveport. When he’s not writing about film or television, Philip can be found being chased by his three children, telling his dogs to stop barking at the mailman, or discussing professional wrestling with his wife. Writing contracts with school newspapers, various dailies, and other professional reports has gotten him to this point where he can write about movies, shows, wrestling, and documentaries (which is a huge win in his eyes). If the stars align correctly, you’ll say For the Love of the Game is the most productive baseball movie of all time.
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