Who doesn’t love a good zombie movie? Well, plenty of people, sure. But the last great zombie movies from a Western film studio was Zombieland and Dead Snow, both back in 2009. So who will step up to take the crown, gathering dust for over a decade? Director Jim Jarmusch is hoping to do that with his star-studded new movie, The Dead Don’t Die.
And when I said an all-star cast, I really meant it. Bill Murray, Adam Driver, and Chloë Sevigny play small town cops who are on the frontlines of the zombie apocalypse. We also see appearances from Steve Buscemi, Danny Glover, Caleb Landry Jones, Rosie Perez, Iggy Pop, Sara Driver, RZA, Selena Gomez, Carol Kane, Austin Butler, Luka Sabbat and Tom Waits. And perhaps, most amazing of all, Tilda Swilton plays a katana-weilding mortician with a weird penchant for extreme make-up.
Now, if you’re getting B-movie, grind house vibes, then you’re not alone. Director Jim Jarmusch is more art house than your mainstream horror director but he’s not new to the drama. His well-loved Only Lovers Left Alive is about vampires and their tortured existence, and he’s got a real flair for the surreal. It’s clearly setting itself apart as more absurdist, more in the vein of Shawn of the Dead, which I am sure some fans are just dying to see.
Oh, and in case you’re looking at the date with fear and dread, it’s not an April Fool’s Day joke, it’s just poorly timed…I think.
The Dead Don’t Die premieres in theaters on June 14, 2019.