Just when I thought the zombie genre had been thoroughly bludgeoned dead-dead (thanks a lot, Walking Dead), along comes Didn't Die, a new film by Meera Menon which explores a post-apocalyptic world where people do a lot of talking. Sometimes about zombies, but mostly not. We've reached a post-modern zombie stage where every nuanced take on the undead has been tapped, so maybe all that's left is for survivors to just chat about their lives.
The zombies (called "biters" here) barely pose any threat. For most of the apocalypse they only come out to feed at night, allowing the humans to go about their lives quite normally in the daytime. Recently however, they have begun to mutate and are appearing in daylight. Oh no.
The movie centers around Vinita (Kiran Deol) who is the host of a "podcast" called Didn't Die, where the living can share their stories and discuss their feelings about living in a zombie apocalypse and what not.
I kept wondering how people listen to a podcast without any infrastructure, but it is revealed later that it's actually a show broadcast over the radio. Then I kept wondering how a single person can manage to produce a radio broadcast without any infrastructure. And how did they print out a stack of flyers to promote the podcast? Look, I'm usually the guy who defends suspension of disbelief. Most of the genre films I watch demand it. But in a film that takes itself seriously and plays itself as a straight drama, I need to know a little about how they are able to power their electronics and charge a Tesla. Just a few rules of this world would help.
It would have been fascinating if her "podcast" was simply a live performance with Vinita standing on a podium speaking to whoever happened to be there to hear her. The idea of clinging to our old ways in a new-normal environment is both poignant and disturbing.
Thankfully, with 60 years of George Romero zombies, we already know how the undead and this genre works: 1) If you get bit, you will become one. 2) Destroy the brain. 3) The real threat is the living humans. Every film adds its own little twist, and in Didn't Die, we have a podcast to give us all the additional exposition we need, which isn't much other than the whole nighttime/daytime thing.
Vinita is surviving with her insecure younger brother, who has somehow managed to survive without ever killing a zombie, and her older brother and his wife. Their existence is upended one day when Vinita's ex shows up with a baby he found and the gang has to wrestle with conflicting feelings and talk a lot about what to do with her.
I guess the movie is something of a post-pandemic parable about how a horrific event can alter people's lives, long after the initial threat has passed. Much of the film is shot in black and white, giving it an arthouse vibe, although I'm not sure it really serves any purpose. All the actors do a great job portraying believable characters and delivering the dense dialog.
At one point Vinita laments that if she repeats the name of her podcast over and over, "didn't die" becomes "didn't I", which suggests that the movie wants to explore regret. Vinita has a microphone and can say everything now that she wishes she had talked about before the world collapsed, but not a lot of people are around to hear her. I'll bet this would work well as a stage play.
Didn't Die takes a swing at reimagining the zombie genre by stripping away the blood-soaked chaos to focus on human connection and introspection. However, if you're looking for a traditional horror/thriller, this film may disappoint-there are few tense moments, minimal blood or gore, and the undead rarely feel like a real threat. As a drama, the lack of coherent world-building and uneven pacing dilute its impact, leaving the film caught between arthouse drama and genre thrills.
