Sundance 2025 Review: DIDN'T DIE, Post-Apocalyptic Zom-Com, Short on Zombies, Short on Comedy

In co-writer/director Meera Menon’s (Equity, Farah Goes Bang) post-apocalyptic zombie tale, Didn’t Die, the zombie-filled life is barely worth living.

 

As always, staying alive means not just dodging the unwashed walking dead and their insatiable appetite for tender human flesh, but also keeping yourself fed, securing safe, defensible housing, and if needed, keeping your motor vehicle fully fueled up and in working order just in case all heck breaks loose. Get those basics down and you stand a reasonable chance of surviving the next zombie attack or unwelcome poacher of the human kind. 

 

Then too there’s the overriding problem of what to do when you’re all set for the immediate, post-apocalyptic future. For Vinita (Kiran Deol, a wry, welcome presence), that means continuing her long-running podcast/radio series, “Didn’t Die,” a rolling interview show co-produced with her younger brother, Rish (Vishal Vijayakumar). The podcast keeps Vinita grounded to a false sense of normality. It also keeps the squeamish Rish tethered to his older, more experienced, zombie-killing sister.

 

As Vinita anticipates the 100th milestone episode of her podcast, her journey across America has come literally and figuratively full circle: She’s returned back to the town where she spent her formative, pre-apocalyptic years and where her older brother, Hari (Samrat Chakrabarti), and his wife, Barbara (Katie McCuen), have turned the family home into a mini-fortress and compound. Where Vinita and Rish prefer the great outdoors of a post-apocalyptic wasteland, Hari and Barbara have chosen the path of least resistance, staying home and waiting out whatever comes next. 

 

Obviously rife with pandemic-related ideas and themes (risk vs. safety, among other comparisons, contact with disease-carrying strangers, all-around uncertainty), Didn’t Die unfolds at an overly leisurely, languid, urgency-free pace, dropping in obligatory zombie attacks at periodic intervals to remind audiences of the post-apocalyptic setting, but mostly focusing on family dynamics, contrasting personalities and such, and later the unwanted return of Vinita’s onetime lover, Vincent (George Basil), and an orphaned infant into their midst.

 

While Vinita and Vincent tentatively figure out their future given a corresponding lack of non-zombie romantic partners in their area, the presence of the orphaned child adds an unexpected wrinkle to the proceedings, raising questions about a future with dwindling resources and an unfavorable human-to-zombie ratio and whether, like any post-apocalyptic setting fictional or probable, a child should be parented in said future. As she’s orphaned and in need, the answer’s obvious, but it takes the better part of an hour for the group of five to decide on a short- and long-term plan of action. 

 

Peppered with lightly ironic humor, mostly from Vinita’s point-of-view as she surveys all she’s lost and will never get back, not to mention what little’s left for the survivors, Didn’t Die works best as a comedy of isolation, dislocation, and disorientation rather than a traditional zombie horror or zombie comedy entry. The emphasis on family, both biological and found, adds a layer of originality to an otherwise overly familiar premise and predictable plot points. 

 

When Menon has to hit the obligatory zombie attack button, though, Didn’t Die disappoints. Either due to budgetary issues, lack of interest or desire, the film keeps the encounters with zombies all too short and even worse, practically gore-free. Most of the gut-munching and skin-snacking happens offscreen or is shown in brief shots and splatters of CG blood.