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Didn't Die movie review: Meera Menon's zombie apocalypse ride offers few thrills
HT at Sundance | Meera Menon's take on the overused genre is fresh, and has interesting ideas on dealing with loss and community amid a dystopian reality.
Meera Menon's Didn't Die opens without specifying what kind of outbreak has set the world in isolation. The parallels with the Covid-19 pandemic here is instant, and surely enough, one of the first characters to appear on screen has a close encounter with a ‘biter’. Two years have passed since the zombies were first spotted at night, but now they have begun to seize the hours of the morning, too- a second wave of sorts. Premiering at Sundance, this is a film that starts off with a strong premise but does not match up with the themes of dealing with loss and finding a community. (Also read: Twinless review: Trauma-bonding takes on a different meaning in this darkly hilarious tale)
The premise
Didn't Die follows a spirited Indian American podcast host, Vinita Malhotra (Kiran Deol), and her younger brother Rishi (Vishal Vijayakumar), as they travel to meet their older brother, Hari (Samrat Chakrabarti) and his wife Barbara (Katie McCuen), which is also their childhood home. Vinita is about to celebrate the 100th episode of her podcast Didn't Die, which takes place through a radio broadcast where she anchors stories and interviews fellow survivors to share their experiences with the rest of the world. This family reunion of sorts becomes a melting pot for questions on dealing with loss and somehow trying to make sense of a dystopian reality.
Meera's use of monochromatic frames here is evocative, urgently conveying the desolation and loss of the present generation. Working with her partner Paul Gleason, who also shot and wrote the project, Didn't Die is more attuned towards a character study rather than going the full length about the zombie apocalypse. It is more a psychodrama of sorts, where the dynamics of this one family pushes the rather inert story forward. The shaky camerawork wears itself out after a point of saturation. This, in turn, limits the sense of perspective.
What works
As morbidly funny as Didn't Die turns out to be, the film also feels rushed in places and often loses its momentum in between. The main tonal shift here is a complex tightrope, as Vinita's sardonic wisdom takes away from the urgency of the situation. Hari and Barbara's arc carries the emotional weight of the film, as Vinita's pragmatism begins to wear off along the way. The point is the insistence of the narrative to show how humour can often be a way of dealing with grief. Indeed it is, but that is an effect that has to be counter-intuitive and not labelled upon. A misplaced sense of humour can cause more harm than a reluctant pause, a lesson this viewer could impart. Still, Meera does well by not playing to the cliches of how South Asian American characters are represented here. It is not a big deal, she insists.
Didn't Die is a film brimming with ideas, which would have worked better if the genre elements were also utilized with more keenness. However, the genre elements in Menon's film feel circumstantial and therefore, limit the chances for developing any other crucial context. Still, this is a small film with its heart in the right place. It only needed more bite.
Santanu Das is covering Sundance Film Festival 2025 as part of the accredited press.
