THE STORY – In the aftermath of a zombie apocalypse, a traveling podcast host tries to rally her listeners, friends, and family while attempting to survive a pandemic two years in.
THE CAST – Kiran Deol, George Basil, Samrat Chakrabarti, Katie McCuen & Vishal Vijayakumar
THE TEAM – Meera Menon (Director/Writer) & Paul Gleason (Writer)
THE RUNNING TIME – 89 Minutes
The Zombie apocalypse subgenre has been the subject of many horror films and television shows since the dawn of the medium, though recent iterations have trended towards a more bleak look into how pandemics can spread in the modern era. “The Last of Us” and “The Walking Dead” franchises, adapted from previous source materials, have given viewers stark and often dreadful reasons to set their schedules for appointment television. Other projects like Ruben Fleischer’s “Zombieland” films have delighted with their humoristic approach to the end of days.
Premiering at the Sundance Film Festival this year is yet another look at the zombie apocalypse, this time complete with a modern take from a podcast host’s point of view. “Didn’t Die,” by director Meera Menon (“For All Mankind”), takes a turn with zombies and gives it a familial spin two years after the apocalypse began. Painted in black-and-white with luminous imagery from cinematographer Paul Gleason, the film’s premise is promising but falters under the weight of its own attempts to be original.
“Didn’t Die” opens with a couple carrying a baby in what appears to be a stark new reality on Earth. Their attempts to escape “biters,” or what we would commonly refer to as zombies, prove unsuccessful, and the opening sequence sees their demise…though it’s unclear what happens to the crying child at first.
We cut to Vinita Malhotra (Kiran Deol), a podcaster who travels the country with her younger brother Rishi (Vishal Vijayakumar), as they approach the 100th episode of (I guess) the only podcast still going despite the threat of biters everywhere. Vinita’s goal is singular: She wants to entertain an audience that is seemingly concentrated on her other siblings while striving to find other survivors along their journeys.
Huddled together in a house owned by their older brother Hari (Samrat Chakrabarti) and his wife Barbara (Karie McCuen), all the siblings show how far they’ve come two years into the worst pandemic anyone could ever imagine. History has been completely rewritten on Earth, but all these folks like to talk about is Vinita’s podcast. Unlike in real life, when Orson Welles famously frightened listening audiences with his take on “The War of the Worlds,” Vinita’s version of current events is confusing and slightly misguided.
The biters emerge throughout the film to give the dry and banter-heavy dialogue some much-needed jolts of horror, while flashbacks to the siblings’ pre-pandemic childhood provide some backstory to their personal relationships. However, the danger subsides rather quickly every time a zombie surfaces with death sequences that are hardly ever satisfying for the genre. The unique indie spirit and black-and-white gloominess give these scenes an eerie quality. Menon does her best to balance the comedy with the horror in ways befitting her prior directing styles on the set of “The Walking Dead” and “Westworld.”
“Didn’t Die” excels when it drives away (sometimes literally) from the zombie apocalypse it’s confined itself to and leans heavily on humor to further the plot. This is most notable when the younger characters are making fun of their elders for still never leaving quarantine, a callback to COVID times when there was a split between some communities and states returning to normal two years into the pandemic. Another slight nod to an underlying current of wit from Menon and Gleason’s script comes when Vinita confronts her “didn’t die” ex-boyfriend about his commitment issues while he carries the aforementioned baby from earlier scenes. Yes, the baby comes back into the mix, though the premise never centers on one specific concept in its short runtime.
Too many ideas cloud an often entertaining film from becoming a strong contender to claim cult horror classic status like “The Mist” or “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.” Meera Menon is a talented director with an eye for resonating with modern takes on a genre that’s been done to death, pun intended. But “Didn’t Die” never lifts off the ground quite as intended and is instantly forgettable despite its attempts at cultivating a worthwhile premise.
