Movies Mayberry Movie Club Week 21: The Dead Don't Die (2019)

[Cubo de Sangre]

Each week club members will vote on a film to watch. Then the following week we'll discuss it. Anyone is welcome to join in the discussions. If you want to become a member then let me know.

For week #21 the club selected The Dead Don't Die (2019).

Premise: The peaceful town of Centerville finds itself battling a zombie horde as the dead start rising from their graves.

Director: Jim Jarmusch

Starring: Bill Murray

Starring: Adam Driver

Trivia:
(via IMDB)​

• The giant anthills are real and were an accidental discovery while filming Hermit Bob in the woods. Jim liked them so much he added the scene & dialogue spontaneously.
  
• When the three cops are driving down the road toward the cemetery, Adam Driver's character leans out the window with a machete to cut off the head of one particular zombie. This zombie is dressed in the same clothes and with the same hair as Bill Murray's character in the 2009 zom-com Zombieland.
  
• According to Jim Jarmusch, Iggy Pop asked him prior to shooting what the backstory for his zombie character was and Jarmusch explained he and his girlfriend were killed on his motorcycle in 1973 after leaving a Blue Öyster Cult concert. Iggy Pop actually performed with Blue Öyster Cult and Kiss in 1973.
  
• The singer of the film's theme song Sturgill Simpson has a cameo as the zombie with the guitar.
  
• Zoe, Zack and Jack drive a Pontiac LeMans. This is the exact same make and model driven by Barbara (Judith O'Dea) and Johnny (Russell Streiner) in the prologue of the original Night of the Living Dead (1968). This is directly referenced by Bobby Wiggins (Caleb Landry Jones) in the movie.
  
• When Adam Driver pulls up at the diner in his small red smart car, the sounds are taken from a Star Wars vehicle sound effect. Later, when he hands the keys to Tilda Swinton, she notes the Star Wars key chain. Both of these scenes reference Adam Driver's involvement in the Star Wars movie series as the character Kylo Ren.
  
• The movie is filled with references to George A. Romero's "Night of the Living Dead" (1968), including an appearance of the infamous naked zombie played by the original actress. Also, the three hipster teens are mistakenly believed to come from Pittsburgh, the city Romero studied and started his director career in.
  
• Tilda Swinton gave Jim Jarmusch the idea of doing a zombie movie while working on Only Lovers Left Alive.
  
• RZA is the driver of a WU-PS delivery truck, a play on UPS with the Wu-Tang logo. RZA is the founding member of the Wu-Tang Clan.
  
• Originally, Jim Jarmusch envisioned Bruce Campbell in the role of Mallory O'Brien, who declined the role after almost forty years of being involved in makeup-heavy scary movies. It was then decided the character could be rewritten as a woman and Jarmusch reached out to Carol Kane, who he'd worked with on In the Soup (1992) along with Steve Buscemi, who accepted the part.
  
• The first film of Jim Jarmusch's 35-year career to receive a wide release (600+ theaters) in the US.
  
• Chief Cliff Robertson (Bill Murray) asks Officer Ronnie Peterson (Adam Driver) if it's "20 after 8" because it's 8 o'clock and still light outside, a reference to George A. Romero's The Night of the Living Dead, where Barbara asks the questions about daylight and time.
  
• This movie contains a few references to Ernie "Ghoulardi" Anderson, the host of "Shock Theatre", a popular late-night horror program that ran on Cleveland television in the 1960s. A poster for Ghoulardi can be seen on the wall of the gas station behind Bobby and at one point in the film, Bobby says "Stay sick" to a group of children, to which they reply "Turn blue, Bobby". "Stay sick" and "turn blue" were catchphrases of Ghoulardi's. Director Jim Jarmusch, who hails from Akron, grew up watching Ghoulardi as a kid and has cited him as an influence on his work. Ernie Anderson is also well-known for being the father of filmmaker Paul Thomas Anderson, who named his own production company Ghoulardi Films after the character.
  
• Daniel Craig was originally supposed to have a part in the film, but because his shooting schedule would have overlapped with Adam Driver's, Jim Jarmusch was forced to cut his part prior to the shoot.
  
• Tilda Swinton's character is named and looks like Zelda from the "Legend of Zelda" videogame series. All her references and her appearance is modelled from pop culture which can be accessed by an alien race.
  
• Tilda Swinton's character is named Zelda Winston. The two names sounding very alike. Some characters appear to call her Tilda rather than Zelda. Winston is also an anagram of Swinton. Similarly, Rosie Perez's character is Posie Juarez, almost phonetic spoonerisms of each other.
  
• Portions of 'The Dead Don't Die' (and scenes from Mr. Jarmusch's previous film 'Broken Flowers') were filmed in NY's Hudson Valley where the director has as a second home. Filming took place near the area's many apple orchards and farm stands, and a well-known local story has Mr. Murray 'borrowing' the prop police car on a break, then driving himself and several co-stars to a local stand where, in character and unrecognized, he convinced the sales woman to give him a dozen cider donuts, saying he'd return to pay for them 'after his shift.'

Spoiler: Weeks 1-20

1. Rampage (2009)
2. Creep (2014)
3. Victoria (2015)
4. The House of the Devil (2009)
5. The Platform (2019)
6. Cam (2018)
7. Happiness (1998)
8. Audition (1999)
9. Up (2009)
10. A Scanner Darkly (2006)
11. Isle of Dogs (2018)
12. Naked Lunch (1991)
13. Scanners (1981)
14. Cube (1997)
15. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
16. The Trip (2021)
17. Eat Me (2018)
18. Possessor (2020)
19 Bronson (2008)
20. The Raid: Redemption (2011)

Members: @Cubo de Sangre @Dirt Road Soldier @MusterX @sickc0d3r @Tufts @Zer @NewJerseyNick @websurfer

Honorary tags: @JayPettryMMA

 

[I Am Legion]

I enjoyed it, but make no doubt about it, it’s bad. It’s really bad. Silly, doesn’t make sense, weird, but it’s still better than Most movies the Rock does.

 

[Aegon Spengler]

I watched this recently, last December. I enjoyed it quite a bit.

It’s a movie that needed to be made. The pace and weirdness bent around the zombie genre a lot more easily than you would think.

 

[Cubo de Sangre]

Mixed feelings on this one. I enjoyed the deadpan nature, but it needed better dialogue. Some of the one-liners hit home and made me laugh, but most of it fell a little flat. Only a handful of the characters were all that interesting. The deputy and Zelda were the best. The nerdy kid who helped out Danny Glover was pretty good. Hermit Bob was good but seemed like a lot of potential was wasted there.

There were a couple oddball moments that I'm not sure helped the film. They're when the spaceship beamed up Zelda and when Murry and Driver were talking about Jarmusch giving Driver the entire scrip so that's how he knew things would end badly.

One aspect I did really like was the zombies being attracted to things they enjoyed when living (eg. coffee and chardonnay).

Maybe it was all the driving around and the spaceship, but for some reason this gave me a Repo Man feel. Too bad it wasn't a Punk Rock soundtrack instead of the same Country song played repeatedly. Overall I doubt I'd recommend this film to anyone.

 

[Tufts]

I liked it. There was some fun originality. I liked the breaking of the fourth wall with the mentioning of the soundtrack and the reference to reading the script. I liked the silliness of the names; Tilda and Posey. I liked the mellow, everyday vibe. No hysterics to be found were a nice change for a ZomCom. I enjoyed the makeup and special effects. All in all, I was entertained and appreciated the dryness of the movie.

 

[revoltub]

Didnt work for me. Had a good cast and I get what they were going for but it just fell flat to me. If you're gonna do a dry humor thing the jokes need to be clever and they just werent. The meta aspect fell flat imo too. One of the worst aspects is the use of ashes instead of blood which just didnt work.

I would say check this out if you're into this sort of thing but I'd assume if you are you've seen better films.

2 stars

 

[MusterX]

What can I say? Average? It tried a sort of dead pan, dry comedy that I'm not much of a fan of unless its really good. Its kinda like growing up and watching people be a fan of Monty Python but never finding it very humorous yourself. It wasn't the worst film I've ever seen but its certainly not good. I think both Shaun of the Dead and Cockney's vs. Zombies were better films but its always that curse of people wanting to pick films they haven't seen.

Not the worst movie ever but its like, a 5 out of 10, 5.5 out of 10. I guess that's way better than a 1 film.

 

[Cubo de Sangre]

I think both Shaun of the Dead and Cockney's vs. Zombies were better films but its always that curse of people wanting to pick films they haven't seen.

Yep. But nothing ventured, nothing gained.

This is why I almost always nominate films I've seen.

PS. Dead Alive (aka Braindead) was much better too.

 

[Dirt Road Soldier]

I liked it. The movie in general is.... strange. There is some great deadpan humor, some dry humor, and just enough slapstick to keep things moving. I'm not entirely sure what the writers and director were actually going for with the movie, but it all came together in a delightful mishmash of "What the hell did I just watch?"

Driver seemed a bit lost on how to do his part for the movie, but Murray seemed to be entirely comfortable in his role so they played well off each other. And Tom Waits, as usual, was hilarious in his little oddball way. Then the rest of the cast was just there enough to support the three main characters. And I was okay with that, it was a huge star studded cast but they managed to keep the light on the three that mattered the most.

I enjoyed the wall breaking of the film, it's not something you see very often anymore and it's usually not well done at all but they managed to do it just right to make it fit.

All in all, it's a movie for people that enjoy zombie flicks but want something a little different from the usual menu. It pays homage to the classics, and manages to have fun while doing it. But the humor won't be for everyone, and the story is pretty slow if you aren't ready for it. I'd recommend it to people that want a not-zombie zombie film and can handle the sahara dryness of the humor, but for most people this movie would sadly have to be a pass as I doubt it would keep their interest for long.

 

[Cubo de Sangre]

I liked it. The movie in general is.... strange. There is some great deadpan humor, some dry humor, and just enough slapstick to keep things moving. I'm not entirely sure what the writers and director were actually going for with the movie, but it all came together in a delightful mishmash of "What the hell did I just watch?"

Driver seemed a bit lost on how to do his part for the movie, but Murray seemed to be entirely comfortable in his role so they played well off each other. And Tom Waits, as usual, was hilarious in his little oddball way. Then the rest of the cast was just there enough to support the three main characters. And I was okay with that, it was a huge star studded cast but they managed to keep the light on the three that mattered the most.

I enjoyed the wall breaking of the film, it's not something you see very often anymore and it's usually not well done at all but they managed to do it just right to make it fit.

All in all, it's a movie for people that enjoy zombie flicks but want something a little different from the usual menu. It pays homage to the classics, and manages to have fun while doing it. But the humor won't be for everyone, and the story is pretty slow if you aren't ready for it. I'd recommend it to people that want a not-zombie zombie film and can handle the sahara dryness of the humor, but for most people this movie would sadly have to be a pass as I doubt it would keep their interest for long.

Great review. Makes me like the flick more.

 

[websurfer]

I initially gave the movie 3 stars, but I revise it to two stars after watching the angry Joe review. I would not watch it again.

The Earth being off its axis causes the lengthening off days. They go nowhere with this concept.

It is not said what prompted the dead being reanimated. The first corpses we see are a young man and women who repeatedly say the word coffee. The two kill the diners. Police shows up the next day and infer it was a wild animal or several wild animals. Driver then gives his honest opinion and says it was zombies.

The fourth Wall is broken repeatedly to no effect. The dead don't die song by Sturgill Simpson is played throughout the movie. Driver says it's the theme song to the movie. Later on, Murray asks Driver, "How do you know this is going to end badly." To which Driver responds, "I've read the script."

Since everyone dies or dissapears except for the bum, it leads to me think that the bum is imagining the whole thing. It's all in his head. That there are no zombies.



The materialistic message at the end fell flat.

Sturgill Simpsons makes a cameo in the movie.

The kids from the correctional center is an unresolved plotline. I revise the rating to two stars because of this.

 

[websurfer]

A comment by Derek Mellon on the angry Joe video explains the kids from the correctional center:

"The kids with the CDC (Centerville detention center) jumpers said, "I know a place we can hide." They were never seen again. Was the joke just that the CDC (Center for Disease Control) would just run and hide in the face of a zombie plague."

They spent 20 minutes on those kids. So cringy that they built up to that and it fell flat.

 

[Cubo de Sangre]

Since everyone dies or dissapears except for the bum,...

Whoa, whoa, whoa. That's no bum, that's Tom fuckin' Waits.

A comment by Derek Mellon on the angry Joe video explains the kids from the correctional center:

"The kids with the CDC (Centerville detention center) jumpers said, "I know a place we can hide." They were never seen again. Was the joke just that the CDC (Center for Disease Control) would just run and hide in the face of a zombie plague."

They spent 20 minutes on those kids. So cringy that they built up to that and it fell flat.

As I recall they died off-screen. Not as annoying as when that happened with Josh Brolin in No Country For Old Men, but still kinda cheap here.

 

[Cubo de Sangre]