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Handling the Undead
Directed by
Thea Hvistendahl
NR
2024
1h 37m
Drama
,
Horror
,
and more
5.3
75%
42%
Rent for $3.99
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.
More
Cast of Handling the Undead
Renate Reinsve
Anna
Anders Danielsen Lie
David
Bahar Pars
Eva
Bjørn Sundquist
Mahler
Denise Trankalis
Solglimt Colleague
Bente Børsum
Tora
Jan Hrynkiewicz
Peter
Olga Damani
Elisabet
John Ajvide Lindqvist
Undertaker / Writer
Inesa Dauksta
Flora
Kian Hansen
Kian
Dennis Østby Ruud
Elias
Pinelli Hedda Munthe
Doctor
Anders Dybwad
Drowned Man
Emma Damskau
Solglimt Colleague
Monica Csango
Reporter (voice)
Anders Rønning
Police Officer (voice)
Gunhild Finne Nilsen
Police Officer (voice)
Thea Hvistendahl
Director / Writer
Françoise von Roy
Writer
Pierre Hodgson
Writer
Kristin Emblem
Producer
Guri Neby
Producer
Handling the Undead Ratings & Reviews
Kevin Ward
July 2, 2025
This put the Zzzzz Zzzzzz Zzzzzzz in zombies. A painfully slow meditation on grief and loss. The somber score, dreary color palette and non-existent dialogue create an oppressively melancholy mood but this never feels like there’s a meaningful arc for any characters beyond, losing loved ones is sad. It’s hard to let go. You better let go though or they gonna f🤩king eat you. 😴🧟 pass.
MovieFreak.com
Sara Michelle Fetters
Hvistendahl treats the audience with respect, her and Lindqvist's reworking of the latter's source material respectful, intelligent, and overflowing in empathy.
Fort Worth Report
Joe Friar
After losing a loved one, you may long for one more chance to see and hug them. Be careful what you wish for. Thea Hvistendah's debut feature is a meditative, mind-shattering experience that gets under your skin.
Rue Morgue Magazine
Michael Gingold
The tone is not shock or terror but tragedy, and the story offers no easy answers, solutions or ways out for its characters.
San Jose Mercury News
Randy Myers
Composer Peter Raeburn's beautifully sad soundtrack along with Pål Ulvik Rokseth's cinematography contribute to creating a tragic mood that's hard to let go of after the film's sad conclusion.
AV Club
Brent Simon
The cooking comparison for Handling the Undead would be a sauce that's broken, its elements having separated. There's a genuine sense of lived-in sadness here, but this would-be elegy doesn't offer quite enough mesmeric insights to justify its somberness.
Bloody Disgusting
Trace Thurman
Hvistendahl establishes herself as a filmmaker with a keen interest in the human condition and a remarkable visual eye.
In Review Online
Daniel Gorman
When all is said and done, it simply doesn't do enough as a study of human suffering or expansion of zombie canon to justify its own existence. It's simply an empty, lumbering husk.
Cinapse
Matthew Jackson
It's one of the most effective horror films of the year, and if you're of a certain persuasion it's the kind of thing that will shake you to your core.
HollywoodInToto.com
Christian Toto
No gore, no problem? Subdued horror film lacks a pulse, purpose.
New York Times
Alissa Wilkinson
"Handling the Undead" also eschews any of the practical questions, but with a more humanist intent: to lean single-mindedly into its characters' emotions - and also its eerie mythical resonance.
RogerEbert.com
Katie Rife
Hvistendahl's film is absorbing, even captivating at times. But it moves at a pace that can be charitably described as "measured." (The uncharitable word is "sluggish.")
Offscreen Central
Jillian Chilingerian
Thea Hvistendahl's Handling the Undead reimagines the typical zombie flick through a sedated meditation on what defines the living: having a body or possessing a soul?
Creators Syndicate
Kurt Loder
It's not a flesh-ripping horror flick - there are one or two mid-level jolts over the course of the picture's 97 minutes, but the fear merchants at Blumhouse or Atomic Monster would chuckle at both of them.
Mark Reviews Movies
Mark Dujsik
Handling the Undead treats this well-worn subject of horror stories with a level of sincerity and severity that's novel and refreshing.
RogerEbert.com
Brian Tallerico
It's an incredibly somber film, one washed in hues of blue and green, and it gets under your skin, making you question how you would react if you could have more time with a lost loved one, even if you knew immediately there would be a cost.
Slant Magazine
Steven Nguyen Scaife
For how committed it is to convincing the audience of the profundity of a rudimentary point, the film's measured pacing comes to feel like a kind of torture.
Deadline Hollywood Daily
Valerie Complex
The film's strength lies in its narrative, seamlessly connecting three distinct family dynamics linked by the common thread of loss.
The Daily Beast
Nick Schager
A zombie film unlike any other, focused less on mayhem than on grief, loss, and the quiet, tragic terror begat by the dead's return.
The Hollywood Reporter
David Rooney
An unexpectedly poignant lament.
Watch Handling the Undead Videos
Handling The Undead (US Trailer 1)
Handling The Undead (US Trailer 1)
Trailer
Handling The Undead (US Trailer 2)
Handling The Undead (US Trailer 2)
Trailer
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