It is said that when a genre cycle nears the end of the ‘life’ and the dramatic idea within that genre run dry the artists turn to comedy. I am not sure I buy that even as a general rule and I certainly do not buy in to that for the subset of horror movies built around zombies as flesh eating undead. 2004’s Shaun of the Dead  is often credited as a film that helped re-launch the zombie movie and its comedic nature is undeniable. An even older than that example is Return of the Living Dead  from 1986, a direct sequel to 1968’s Night of the Living Dead, a dark comedy, and the movie that forever implanted in popular culture the concept that zombies eat brains. So the release of this month’s zombie comedy The Dead Don’t Die  is not in my book a sure sign that the genre had reached its end. Though I will admit that finding really good zombie movies is always a difficult pastime.

Written and Directed by Jim Jarmusch the filmmaker behind the vampire movie Only Lovers Left Alive  The Dead Don’t Die  is a story of the zombie apocalypse as experienced in the small one horse town of Centerville USA. Roughly centered on Police Chief Cliff Robertson (Bill Murray) and police officer Ronnie Peterson (Adam Driver) the film follows a diverse set of quirky characters including Farmer Frank Miller (Steve Buscemi), Hermit Bob (Tom Waits), and new comer to the town and apparently a Scottish samurai undertaker Zelda Winston (Tilda Swinton) and a smattering of other famous actors and musicians playing smaller parts.

Unlike most comedies this movie is paced, quite deliberately, at a quite sedate speed. Things unfold in a slow steady progression and scenes play out with a languid sense of timing. Some of the humor comes from character and context but this film also plays with the a meta-narrative that has at least some of the characters seeming aware of the convention of zombies film and even through own more questionable reality. While there is zombie flesh eating action it is far from graphic in this presentation and Jarmusch replaces zombie blood and gore with a wispy black smoke effect that makes this a nearly bloodless horror film.  Near the resolution in the movie’s third act I was reminded of the Spierig’s brother low-budget indie zombie comedy Undead, but only is a passing manner due to a few shared story elements.

The Dead Don’t Die  is not a film for everyone. The humor is often understated, the pacing more fitting to a foreign film than a typical US theatrical release, and the meta-narrative keeps the viewer at distance, but conversely there are some terrifically understated performances, Bill Murray gives perhaps his quietest comedic line readings ever, several interesting ideas are presented on the nature of life versus unlife, and throughout the movie’s run time I was never bored as I was with the much faster paced Dark Phoenix.