Ooh, we're looking forward to this one, folks. The film adaptation of John Ajvide Lindqvist's novel by the same name, Handling The Undead, is coming soon from Neon and it looks to be ready to seriously tug on our decaying heart strings.
It has been quite some time since I read the novel but all seems in good order in the official trailer. The poster also arrived today, both preparing us for the exclusive release at the IFC Center on May 31st. The theatrical release will expand to other cities starting on June 7th.
Below the official synopsis is a director's statement from Thea Hvistendahl. Handling The Undead stars Renate Reinsve and Anders Danielsen Lie.
On a hot summer day in Oslo, the dead mysteriously awaken, and three families are thrown into chaos when their deceased loved ones come back to them. Who are they, and what do they want?A family is faced with the mother’s reawakening before they have even mourned her death after a car accident; an elderly woman gets the love of her life back the same day she has buried her; a grandfather rescues his grandchild from the gravesite in a desperate attempt to get his daughter out of her depression.Handling the Undead is a drama with elements of horror about three families, a story about grief and loss, but also about hope and understanding of what we can’t comprehend or control.Director’s StatementI wanted to make a film about how people in deep grief would react to getting their dead loved ones back. I wanted to investigate the emotions, conflicts and existential questions that this phenomenon could unearth in someone. To try and give resolution to individuals, characters that are longing for the return of those lost… and show them what this would actually mean.The goal was to make a meditative film about that grief and loss and the impossible wish of wanting the past to become the present. How do we deal with the incomprehensible event when it happens? Who are we after loss? How do we deal with losing someone we love? And how do we, if even possible, move on?What is our role in death and how do we handle it? Role changing is extremely hard, but when your closest dies, it happens automatically. The person that is gone leaves a vacuum, and the ones left behind need to enter a new role and seek a new balance within themselves and their relations. And in this unrest, we tend to hurt each other.There’s no correct way of grieving and I wanted to make room for the audience to put themselves into the story and feel acknowledged. I wanted them to leave the cinema with a feeling of hope - a feeling that the world does in fact go on.Death is beyond our control and is probably the only thing humans haven’t yet conquered.My hope is to leave the audience with a feeling of love, that the experience of watching the film will provide a renewed sense of appreciation for those around them… while they still have them.