The Dead Don't Die (2019) User Reviews (1,598)

This non-event should be buried alive

[FrenchEddieFelson · 5/10 · 17 May 2019]

All the ingredients to produce a masterpiece are present: 1) A director I love, Jim Jarmusch, due to the excellent Paterson (2016) and Broken Flowers (2005). 2) A to-die-for cast, with Bill Murray in particular. 3) A sens of humor that regularly flirts with the absurd, including wacky and irreverent dialogues like « a black coffee please, but not too black » for instance. 4) The mesmerizing voice of Tom Waits. 5) A slight criticism of our society, especially the progressive global warming because of a strong procrastination with regard to the respect of our environment, and, albeit to a lesser extent, consumerism. 6) Zombies! I may confess that I have a crush on zombies. 7) ...

So, all the ingredients are lumped together but, it's quite strange and even weird, the recipe is rather unsuccessful: the atmosphere is sometimes cutesy or even insipid, the characters are usually devoid of enthusiasm and quite often apathetic, and the final scene rhymes with bitterness and bewilderment.

Although the film is not completely lousy thanks to a few successful scenes, I was globally bored and disappointed. In my humble opinion, this movie is a non-event and, as an echo with itself, should be buried alive, from now on until the end of the world. And even longer!

Typical Jarmusch

[Breumaster · 6/10 · 6 February 2020]

It's his dry and sober way of filming. But on the other hand, it was funny at several points. There were scenes, I did really laugh out hard and for quiete some time. If there weren't so many traces between the funny or laughing moments, it would have get a higher rating by me. A very ironical view on the zombie genre. Well, I was entertained and even though this movie is no real burner, I think it's still ok to watch. Bill Murray is great as ever. In my opinion the movie is better than most people rated.

Boring, bland and pretentous

[Dilldappe · 4/10 · 31 May 2019]

This movie is a waste of time - do yourself a favor and dont watch it. The suggested humor from the trailer is constantly missfiring, dull and repetitive. You are supposed to laugh at usage of the same line thats repeated over and over until the last person rolls his eyes in agony. Sarcastic remarks are made to hit the audience over the head with the absurdity of the situation, thrown in with some blunt 4th wall breaking. Nothing works, not even the acting. While the main cast is supposed to be almost apathic at the outbreak of a zombie apacolypse, it geniuely kills the mood and every sense of drama or tension. After this you will wonder if Adam Driver cant really act and Bill Murray was high or thinking about his paycheck the while time.

There are no pay-offs to character arcs and they push some weird social commentary over the cause of the outbreak thats so mindnumbingly obvious and in your face it loses all weight, plus voice-over to really hammer home the fact how humans where zombie-like to begin with on how they consume and want ever more. Really dull in its delivery it only adds to the feeling of wanting to just be done with the movie. Save yourself from boredom and regret over wasted time and money and skip this.

I wanted to like it

[edwinmontano-77376 · 3/10 · 18 September 2019]

I saw the trailer and all the great actors, so I was naturally excited. Then I saw the whole thing and was extremely disappointed. Such wasted talent. The acting of course was phenomenal but the writing was just dead.

It is what it is

[kazikp · 7/10 · 16 August 2020]

Typical Jarmush. Is it slow paced? Check. Is it dialogue heavy? Check. Is it absurd at times? Check. To the people that complain it's not action packed enough I would reply it's as action packed as Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai.

Also I think because this movie has zombies in it people give it lots of low reviews, because it's a case of missed expectations.

There's a simple filter you can use to decide whether to watch it. If you enjoyed any of the previous Jarmush movies you won't be heavily disappointed. While not an instant classic it's true to his style. If not, maybe start with one of his earlier movies (Broken Flowers, Night on Earth, Ghost Dog, Dead Man) to get a taste of Jarmush first.

Beyond boring and stupid

[krgunn · 1/10 · 21 March 2021]

My girlfriend has HBO+, so on "date night" yesterday evening we decided to watch The Dead Don't Die. We didn't know anything about the movie, but we assumed with such an excellent cast it had to be decent. Boy, were we wrong. Before I get lectures from Jim Jarmusch fans, I've seen some of his other movies and have enjoyed them.

The Dead Don't Die gives an entirely new meaning to the word "boring." Slow-paced is one thing, stupefyingly dull is another. The wooden acting from some of my favorites doesn't help, but very, very little happens in the movie, and when it does, the action is pretty boring and predictable, too. People sit around, stand around, and drive around with expressionless faces mouthing pointless expository dialog even though there's not much to expose. The scenery is pretty, which is about the only positive.

The environmentalist and anti-consumerism message is heavy-handed and pretty stupid. While I would normally agree with such a message, I didn't like being bludgeoned about the head with it, and it's handled in such a haphazard and nonsensical way it certainly isn't going to change any minds. The concept of the Earth tilting off its axis is interesting if utterly implausible, and there is absolutely no follow-through. A kid in a detention facility (I think; little is clear in this movie) mentions to a couple of fellow detainees that the Earth going off it's axis would destroy the world, which I imagine is correct, but the only effects the characters experience is that it gets dark later. Well, that and the zombies. And the moon looks peculiar.

We probably should have turned it off early in the movie when the song "The Dead Don't Die" comes on the radio while Bill Murray and Adam Driver are cruising around in their police car. The Murray character wonders aloud why it sounds familiar. The Driver character says it's because it's the movie's theme song. Cringe. Even worse, toward the end, Murray's character asks Driver's character why he's been saying "It's not going to end well" throughout. Driver's character says it's because he's read the script. Double cringe. There are ways to break the fourth wall in a clever manner, but in The Dead Don't Die it's merely embarrassing.

I love Tom Waits, and he does as well as he can with his part as the hermit, but to me his character seemed tacked on as an afterthought, as if Jarmusch decided he needed an observer to make pithy remarks about mankind's flaws.

I really, really wanted to like this movie, and my girlfriend and I watched it until the end expecting something interesting to happen. Unfortunately, nothing ever does. At one point about halfway through my girlfriend asked, "Do you have any idea where this movie is going? Is everyone going to die?" I yawned and said, "I really don't know."

The Dead Don't Die seems like a "screw you" to the audience from Jarmusch, kind of like when the great Lou Reed, freaked out by his sudden popularity, released "Metal Machine Music." If you're not old enough to remember that, Google it.

I'm embarrassed for all the excellent actors involved in this boring mess. Maybe it looked better on paper than on film. I strongly recommend everyone avoid The Dead Don't Die unless you're having a hard time getting to sleep.

Jim Jarmusch Quirkiness

[swordsnare · 7/10 · 12 October 2019]

Such a quirky little ditty, but not for everyone mind you. Brimming with irony, stilted yet hammed up dialogue and the usual casting choices you would come to expect from Jarmusch.

This is a comical, almost parody-like Zombie film with a social commentary that comes more apparent further into the runtime. Quite liked it and found it quite humorous, but I am a fan of Jarmusch's previous work and much of the cast.

Deadest Horse-Beating-est Movie of All Time

[johndoe_13 · 3/10 · 17 June 2019]

I hate this movie. I saw it for free and still want my money back. It is an absolutely pointless, meandering vanity project that attempts to trick you into thinking it's cleverer than it is. According to the director himself, it was designed to be a dumb movie comprised of dumb bits as a way to make money hanging out with his friends. And what's worse is that the trailer tricks you into thinking it is an entirely different movie - the worst kind of lie you can tell in an effort to lure people away from their hard-earned money and precious time.

There is literally no point to anything that happens; Jarmusch has no sense of pace or urgency or meaning. And in my opinion, art for the sake of itself alone is condescending towards your audience. I normally like his work, along with all of the actors, the subject matter and tone - this should have been right in my wheelhouse. But I left feeling like the director had a contemptuous view of the people watching his film (in EVERY regard) and that just doesn't sit well with me. Not everything has to matter in a movie, but SOMETHING should.

Ultimately, it felt like a third-rate SNL skit that was allowed to drag on for two hours.

The auteur don't care

[lor_ · 3 October 2021]

Jim Jarmusch is an accomplished filmmaker, but has clearly been listening overmuch to sycophantic praise over the years. That old saw about someone so talented you could listen to them reading the phone book aloud doesn't pertain to JJ, who has consciously made a lousy horror film akin to the license pornographers use when making "porn-parody".

Rounding up famous, big-name talent to walk through nothing roles, and then execute, rather than actualiy satirize horror movie cliches is of zero interest, and why a top tier storyteller would waste the considerable effort it takes to make a real feature film on worthless material like this is beyond comprehension.

If "fake hipness" is what Jarmusch wants to be remembered for rather than an original talent, this is certainly a proper nail in his coffin. I'd also be interested in the formula of the kool-aid he served this cast to get them to sign up for such menial roles.

So very Bill Murray

[gray-beard · 7/10 · 2 October 2019]

Very much the dry humor of Bill Murray. Check out the other works of Jim Jarmusch and Bill Murray and maybe you will appreciate this movie better. It must have been fun to make. I hope they make an out take video for youtube. I think it would be fun to watch

One of the worst films I've ever seen. People left the theater halfway through!

[drakewidlake · 1/10 · 20 June 2019]

I would highly avoid seeing this. It's slow with a stupid plot that goes nowhere. Saw about 10 people walk out of the theatre. Bill Murray was not funny at all. The film tries to repeat dumb jokes that aren't funny. Random UFO shows up and takes away a Scottish Samurai funeral director. Side plots that go nowhere and wastes about 20 minutes of the movie. The entire cast was wasted, just like the two hours of my life watching this trash of a movie. This was not art, but it was a big middle finger to anyone who had to sit through it. It's almost as if the director wanted to make the worst movie ever just to say "I made the worst movie ever." Why release this to theaters? It should of been free on Netflix. Then you could at least turn it off and pick something better to watch.

A Definite Love It or Hate It Movie

[fanpuck33 · 9/10 · 1 August 2020]

I completely understand all the low ratings and reviews. This is definitely a movie that if you don't like it, you are going to absolutely hate it. It is very dry comedy with lots of deadpan and significant fourth wall breaking. If you don't find anything amusing in the first 10 minutes, then you should probably move on to something else.

Over the top political commentary. Side stories that go absolutely nowhere and are seemingly just forgotten. Random plots events that make no sense to the rest of the movie. All things I normally hate in a movie, but this time it just works. The reason for this is a fourth wall break that you don't initially realize is a fourth wall break. Very early in the movie and throughout it, Adam Driver's character says, "This isn't going to end well." It isn't obvious that he's talking about the movie itself. So when all the ridiculous plot points happen and the side stories are abandoned, it is HILARIOUS because he's been telling the viewer all along that was going to happen.

A low-key gem, full of charm and an affection for its characters.

[maddox-richard · 7/10 · 20 May 2019]

Saw this film on opening week in Paris.

It should be enjoyed by everyone who loves the particular style of comedy Jim honed early on with Stranger Than Paradise, Down By Law, Mystery Train, Night on Earth and Coffee and Cigarettes. Knowing, deadpan, meta-comedies.

It's pretty much Jim's Mars Attacks outing but tonally the opposite - gentle rather than rabidly cynical, chuckle-along-funny rather than laugh-out-loud-outrageous.

In the same way that Tim Burton's sci-fi comedy works best for those enthralled to see Annette Bening and Pierce Brosnan in an absurd b-movie pastiche. The Dead Don't Die should work a treat if you're simply excited to see Tom Waits, Tilda Swinton and Iggy Pop in a zombie comedy.

Admittedly not to everyone's taste. Liking the film will more than usually depend on how much you like the characters. I loved every single character and would have happily spent more time in their company.

Maybe next up for an unexpected horror comedy could be Wes Anderson...

I Wish the Dead did die...

[marklehew · 3/10 · 30 August 2019]

...because this movie was so slow and uneventful it was painful. With a cast like this, it should have been good, but it's just not. Only a couple scenes and interesting cinematography save this from being a 1.

Oh wow, this was dreadful...

[paul_haakonsen · 3/10 · 5 September 2019]

Seriously?

I had such high hopes for this movie. I mean, a zombie horror comedy with a star crammed cast, as this was all that director and writer Jim Jarmusch could muster? This was such a disappointing movie in so many, many ways.

First of all, the storyline and the pacing of the movie was just atrocious. The movie was unfathomably slow paced to the point of where boredom was starting to set in and you were really to just hold out a hand and let a zombie chomp down on your flesh.

And when the movie finally does pick up pace, which wasn't very much actually, it wasn't much of an improvement. Especially since the storyline and script was essentially non-existing and just rubbish.

Sure, the zombie aspect of the movie was good, and it was that which lured me to watch the movie after all, as I am a fan of all things zombie. But this was just way, way too boring. And then suddenly a flying saucer turned up, and people started to talk about a script implying that they were in a movie. I was good and ready to just get up and walk out on "The Dead Don't Die" at that point. But I stuck with it to the end, to the boring, prolonged and boring end.

The zombie make-up was good, so that at least counted for something, but it wasn't enough to make up for everything else where the movie either lacked, came in short or just didn't even bother to make an effort.

Now, the movie does have a very impressive assembly of cast, which includes Bill Murray, Adam Driver, Tom Waits, Chloë Sevigny, Steve Buscemi and Danny Glover.

There was a healthy dose of sarcasm in the movie, small bits and pieces that you might not pick up on. But that was actually a nice thing about the movie, such as Adam Driver's character having a Star Destroyer keyring, zombies walking with mobile phones groaning "wifi", zombies drinking coffee and groaning "coffee", Buscemi's red cap with a slogan that openly mocks Trump's slogan, and odd bits and pieces like that could be found throughout the movie.

Sadly "The Dead Don't Die" is not a movie that I will be returning to watch a second time, because it was just horribly boring and so slow paced that even the zombies were going "hey, Jim Jarmusch, you mind picking up the pace?"

My rating of "The Dead Don't Die" is going to be settling on a very low three out of ten stars. The movie had potential, but it failed in almost every aspect. The comedy in the movie was flaccid and just infantile. The storyline and plot was abysmal. And it was a massive swing and a miss of something that could have been such a glorious thing...

The movie was, in lack of better terms, dreadful. And it being a zombie movie makes me cringe just having to admit to saying that about it. But hey, not everything zombiesque is amazing, huh?

Zombie Art Film

[jacksodacoffee · 7/10 · 13 August 2020]

The bad reviews here discount two things: Jim Jarmisch's prior films, and zombie/monster movies I'd the 1950s and 1960s. Without these reference points I'm not sure why you'd even watch this film.

If you didn't like it, you probably fell asleep

[kennbr · 3/10 · 30 August 2019]

Yeah I get that this is a big satirical commentary on zombie movie tropes, blended in with a big metaphorical commentary on society, and capped with a little diatribe from Tom Waits as the "outward observer", but the entire thing is just SO slow that it's utterly boring. I literally fell asleep in the middle of it and had to start it over again. The jokes aren't funny and the story elements go nowhere.

Maybe if they hadn't spent so much money on the rock-star cast of A-list celebrities they would have had more left over in the budget for a story with jokes. Honestly I think the reason the whole thing moved so dreadfully slow is because they had to find a way to fill 90 minutes. Watch the thing at 1.5x normal playback speed, and maybe the high-pitched voices and better pacing will make it salvageable.

Cliches reanimated

[sjogro · 7/10 · 12 January 2020]

The plot is undead in this one. Everything reeks of dead genre. Jim killed zombie comedy but the dead don't die.

Total waste of money and talent - and your time

[petercarlsson-92297 · 1/10 · 31 August 2019]

I find it hard to believe how bad this movie was. Had all the ingredients to be good, but ended up as a total waste of time. No story, no acting, no fun, no scares, no nothing. Don't waste any time on this crap.

Jarmusch's Zombie flick is dead on arrival

[spriggs-lee · 8 June 2019]

First off I gave this movie 6/10 because the cast is great, as is the overall production value. The movie also has a plot that begins and ends (something a shocking number of movies don't have). That alone warrants 6/10 in my book.

After Only Lovers Left Alive (2013) and Paterson (2016), both films I absolutely LOVE, Jarmusch seems to want to move in a less philosophical and goofier direction. Both those films are quiet, thought-provoking, and uneventful but not in a bad way.

The Dead Don't Die feels like Jarmusch trying to make an event film, as well as a statement on American sociopolitical culture today, on Hollywood today, as well as pay homage to classic zombie films. With so many characters and so much disconnect between them, as well as so little attention given to the themes, the film ultimately is... a mess. There is a meta framing device that doesn't really work too.

In trying to touch on all these things and their great complexities, Jarmusch winds up effectively analyzing none of them. Themes are lightly addressed before quickly being swept away and replaced with something else. Same could be said for the characters and subplots. There is fun to be had if you enjoy weird and offbeat movies, but this is sadly a weak outing for Jarmusch. I'd much sooner recommend other zombie comedies such as Zombieland, Shaun of the Dead, and Return of the Living Dead before this one.

Inspired

[pixelcrash3 · 7/10 · 7 February 2021]

The Dead Don't Die is four movies in one. The first is a typical Jim Jarmusch-ian slice-of-life drama where the characters wander through their everyday existence at a slow and meditative pace. The second is a standard zombie apocalypse where everybody's life turns upside down and they have to fight for survival. The third is a meta-movie that ridicules itself and cinema in general by having Bill Murray and Adam Driver talk about the script, and then proceeding with a ludicrous finale that involves aliens. The fourth is a Jean-Luc Godard-esque sermon on environmentalism and materialism. None of the parts excels in itself, but taken together they make for an appealing whole.

A severe example of false advertising in trailers.

[lordkrythic · 1/10 · 29 May 2019]

The trailer of this movie honestly belies the state of the actual movie. If you watch the trailer, it attempts to convey a more action oriented approach, with aspects of comedy that are quite synonymous with Zombie movies in recent times. However, the movie itself is nowhere like the trailer attempted to portray it as. Everything in the movie is slow, dull, and seems to just be meandering its way through scenes. Watching it, you really want to like it. You're thinking to yourself that the build up is going to be worth it. However, the more of it you watch, you will begin to feel as though the movie is not going to change, and it doesn't. The entire movie is extremely blah from start to finish.

At first, as I've already stated, this was not necessarily a bad thing. I enjoy a build up as much as anyone else. And when one of the officers say "It's zombies", you sort of laugh about it, because you as a viewer know they're right. You expect the other characters to laugh at the person who said it. But this is not what happens. In fact, everyone in the town immediately assumes zombies, without having actually seen a zombie themselves. The police officers also visit a nearby graveyard to inspect the local graves...again, they have no reason to believe it's actually zombies. No one has seen a zombie up until that point, and no logical person would ever immediately jump to the conclusion of zombies. If this was the purpose of the movie-to convey a sense of vertigo-it was done poorly by the end of the movie. I cannot stress that enough.

There are also two major 4th wall breaks. The first of which, you don't quite register what the person is talking about. So when they say "It's the theme song", you wonder to yourself are they actually talking about the movie? Is this something that will be explained later? Surely they wouldn't break the 4th wall like that...and then you see the second 4th wall break, where one of the police officers literal states "He knows how the movie ends, because he read the script". Even though I'm all for clever 4th wall breaks, this one honestly urinated me off (bypassing language filter), because it showed just how much the director of the movie didn't care about the movie itself. Immersion broken 100%, and not in a good way.

Did I mention they throw in random alien cameos? No? Well, they do. And it honestly had absolutely no place in this film. Nothing was explained in this film. Absolutely nothing. Why is it perpetual day, and then suddenly night? Something about the Earth's Tilt, any further questions? Screw you. Why is the dead coming back to life? Again, screw you. Why was someone in the town secretly an alien? Screw you. What was the point of the alien in the police station? Screw you. There are so many things wrong with this script that I honestly couldn't convey them all here if I tried.

If you watch this movie, go back and watch the trailer again. The trailer is a 100% different movie. And I'm personally wondering how no one is getting a lawsuit for false advertising after something like that.

TL;DR

The trailer blatantly lied about the content and pace of the movie. This movie is nothing but lost potential. It doesn't know what it wants to be, and has no idea of realizing what it wants to be.

The zombies don't like this movie.

[foxesandmagpies · 8/10 · 25 November 2019]

A clever, onion-skinned movie that reflects back on the audience the true horror of zombies.

We're all addicted to something, lost in a world of thought, each finding ourselves outside of ourselves while the world falls apart around us. And, on top of this we're all reading off a different script, all on different pages, a mess of half-opinions and echoed sentiment we're really not thinking through. We're sloppy and entitled, lost and confused, zombies one and all.

So, it makes sense that this movie would be lost on us.

A good movie. Whimsical, boring, strange, funny. Great characters that don't go quite where you want them to. Plot-lines and arcs you expect to manifest but don't. But... That's the point. Our expectations are what drive us, make us zombies... Our expectation of coffee or chardonnay, Wi-Fi and guitars.

Prepare to have your expectations woefully and beautifully trashed then. What else could us zombies hope for?

Totally nuts

[okpilak · 6/10 · 16 October 2023]

There are scenes so totally unexpected, it adds a little something extra to the movie. When Adam Driver comes roaring up to the diner in his tiny Smart car. Or his Star Wars ship token on his car keys. And using a dull machete. And there is Zelda, walking to the police station, make sharp ninety degree turns, and her Scottish accent. And her sword play. Then there is the colored aura around the moon. But it is the total dead pan delivery of the dialogue that adds a lot of humor to the scenes. No matter what was happening, it was discussed in such a matter of fact manner. The town having an expert on zombies was useful, as he has seen almost every zombie movie out there. No, it is not a great movie and nothing really new, but if you like dead pan humor, this movie will be enjoyable.

What's the point?

[frank_wambosi · 2/10 · 22 September 2019]

Utter waste of time. Haven't do any movie reviews before this but this one earned my hassle to type this. Also theme song was played too many times in the movie, makes me hate the song just like Bill Murray in the movie. As interesting as watching the scenery passing by miles of oat fields