The Dead Don't Die (4 Stars)

Jim Jarmusch is never predictable. Every new film is a surprise for the audiences. We never know what to predict. "The Dead Don't Die" isn't a surprise because it's a zombie film, but because it's so funny. It's a zombie comedy with the emphasis on the comedy. I honestly thought Jim Jarmusch was too serious to make a film like this.

The setting is Centerville, a small American town presumably in the centre of the USA. It only has 738 inhabitants, but it has a diner, a motel, a hardware store, a funeral parlour, a cemetery, a police station, a juvenile detention centre, an old people's home and a gas station. That's all any town needs, isn't it? The only thing I can think of that's missing is a church, but there must have been one. It wasn't shown because it wasn't important to the plot. What about a school? In a town that small the children are probably sent by bus to the next large town.

Polar fracking has tipped the Earth off its axis and changed the speed of rotation. This has caused the dead to rise from the graves as zombies. The main characters are the policemen Cliff Robertson and Ronnie Peterson, played by Bill Murray and Adam Driver. (I wonder if the similarity of the the name Peterson to Adam Driver's character in Jim Jarmusch's last film, "Paterson", is deliberate).

Ronnie repeatedly breaks the fourth wall by referring to things outside of the film. He knows that things will end badly because he's read the script. This adds to the film's hilarity.

I can imagine that this isn't a film that everyone will like. Jim Jarmusch's films are always a matter of taste. I didn't even like "Only Lovers Left Alive" until the second time I saw it. The cinema audience today seemed to enjoy it, judging by the laughter throughout the room. I can recommend it to my readers. If you don't like it, watch it a second time. Then tell me what you think. That's what my comments box is for.

The film's theme song, "The Dead Don't Die" by Sturgill Simpson, is the most blood curdling thing about the film. I shuddered every time it played. It will give me nightmares when I close my eyes tonight.