Meera Menon’s Didn’t Die begins with a premise that feels virtually inevitable within the wake of a world nonetheless reeling from world crises: in a zombie-infested America, a podcast host clings to an ever-dwindling viewers, determined to remain related at the same time as civilization collapses. However beneath its wry humor and monochrome aesthetic, the zombie comedy Didn’t Die is much less in regards to the undead and extra in regards to the isolation that lingers even when survival is technically attainable. How will we talk when every part we as soon as relied on — group, tradition, even fundamental infrastructure — has crumbled? And if you’re broadcasting into the void, who’s actually listening? And does it matter?
The movie follows Vinita (Kiran Deol), a sardonic, self-aware podcast host who delivers post-apocalyptic updates with the type of indifferent irony that millennials perfected as a coping mechanism. She navigates a world the place “biters” roam freely, and human connection is more and more uncommon. However as Didn’t Die unfolds, Vinita’s irony begins to crack, revealing a movie that’s, at its core, about confronting what occurs when survival isn’t nearly avoiding dying, however selecting to dwell.
Zombies, Podcasts, and Pandemic-Period Anxieties
Did not Die
3
/5
- Launch Date
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January 30, 2025
- Runtime
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89 minutes
- Director
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Meera Menon
- Producers
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Meera Menon, Paul Gleason
- Likable characters ship wry dialogue and evoke the loneliness inherent within the movie.
- An fascinating commentary on how we trend our identities and our should be heard.
- Ostensibly a zombie comedy, the movie handles its horror components and zombie scenes very poorly.
Menon’s alternative to border Didn’t Die as each a zombie movie and a pandemic allegory is deeply intentional. The movie’s black-and-white cinematography instantly recollects Evening of the Dwelling Useless, a movie that used the undead as a mirror for America’s deepest anxieties. However the place George A. Romero’s work was a direct commentary on race and media, Menon turns her focus towards modern disconnection and selfishness — how, even because the world ends, folks stay obsessive about curating their identities, delivering monologues right into a digital ether that will now not have listeners.
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The movie is particularly sharp in its early moments, as Vinita, holed up in her Tesla, clings to routine. A lone man, later revealed to be Vinita’s youthful brother Rishi (Vishal Vijayakumar), pastes posters for her podcast throughout deserted metropolis partitions. Somebody nonetheless cares, or no less than, nonetheless listens. Even within the apocalypse, the hustle doesn’t cease.
Vinita’s wry, self-deprecating fashion of supply masks her fears, nevertheless it additionally creates distance. All through the movie, her survival intuition isn’t simply bodily; it’s additionally emotional, constructed on the flexibility to maintain folks at arm’s size via humor. However when her philandering ex, Vincent (George Basil), seems carrying a child, the fastidiously constructed partitions round her begin to weaken.
A World That Refuses to Die
In contrast to many zombie movies, Didn’t Die not often focuses on the precise undead. The biters exist, however they continue to be on the periphery, a background menace that solely turns into related when the narrative calls for it. As an alternative, Menon is extra fascinated about how folks perform (or fail to) throughout the ruins. One of many movie’s most quietly hilarious but highly effective moments happens when a personality pertains to a child’s emotional instability. It’s a easy line, performed off as a joke, nevertheless it cuts deep: what does it imply to be emotionally steady when the world is essentially unstable?
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One other operating theme is the dissonance of on a regular basis absurdity inside disaster. Even in the long run occasions, penis photos scrawled on partitions and home windows are nonetheless humorous. Individuals nonetheless argue over meals, flirt awkwardly, and reminisce about relationships that didn’t survive even earlier than the outbreak. And naturally, there’s nonetheless paperwork — plans, protocols, and techniques of energy that persist long gone their usefulness.
Menon performs with this absurdity in delicate methods. The movie’s black-and-white aesthetic is sometimes punctuated by grainy 8mm flashbacks — dwelling motion pictures, birthday events, snippets of a world that now not exists. These moments don’t simply function exposition; they remind us that reminiscence itself is fragile and will get reframed via nostalgia and grief. If survival means holding onto the previous, what occurs when that previous was already slipping away?
A Zombie Movie That’s Concerning the Dwelling
Maybe the largest critique and contradiction of Didn’t Die is how little it cares about being a standard horror movie. The zombies, whereas current, are not often the purpose. The movie’s strongest moments are its character-driven interactions, notably the dynamic between Vinita and Vincent. Their banter feels lived-in, their frustrations deeply acquainted. They aren’t simply surviving collectively — they’re re-negotiating the phrases of their relationship in real-time, making an attempt to determine if love, in any type, continues to be attainable when the world is past saving.
The place Didn’t Die principally falters is in its balancing act. Whereas its emotional beats are well-drawn, the horror components generally really feel like an afterthought, an compulsory framing gadget quite than an built-in a part of the movie’s DNA. Some zombie assaults lack weight, their choreography imprecise, their menace inconsistent. There’s a push-and-pull between the movie’s existential drama and its style obligations, and in moments the place the 2 don’t fairly merge, the movie loses a few of its momentum.
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That being stated, its commentary on pandemic-era disconnection is placing. The idea of a post-apocalyptic podcast tour is each hilarious and depressingly actual. Individuals nonetheless making an attempt to model themselves, nonetheless greedy for some type of relevance even because the world burns — it’s a deeply millennial, deeply trendy type of horror.
A Movie That Doesn’t Fairly Die, However Lingers
The movie performs with fascinating concepts about grief, connection, and the way in which folks cling to previous patterns even because the world reshapes round them. It’s a movie much less involved with the mechanics of horror and extra fascinated about how folks survive one another.
Meera Menon has crafted one thing that feels each intimate and indifferent, emotionally resonant but barely out of sync with its personal style. Whereas Didn’t Die doesn’t all the time stick the touchdown, it’s an intriguing entry into the ever-evolving panorama of zombie movies—one which understands that, in the long run, the scariest factor isn’t the lifeless. It’s being left behind. Did not Die screened on the 2025 Sundance Movie Pageant. Discover extra data right here.