6 hours ago
2 ARTICLE AD
Just when you think filmmakers have exhausted every possible take on zombies, a new movie comes along to remind you that there are still fresh stories waiting to creep out of the grave. An io9 review said nearly the same thing about Handling the Undead, which played the Sundance Film Festival in 2024—and 2025’s currently underway event has a similarly offbeat zombie tale in Didn’t Die.
Set two years after an unspecified outbreak transformed most of the population into “biters,” Didn’t Die introduces us to Vinita (a charismatic Kiran Deol), whose main coping mechanism is creating her “podcast”—which is actually broadcast over the radio, since there’s no internet in the post-apocalypse. She dwells within a hard shell crafted mostly of sarcasm; it’s allowed her to face her dystopian new reality with an upbeat spirit, though she also clings to the comforting knowledge that while her parents might be out of the picture, her brothers are still a big part of her life.
After time spent traveling around interviewing fellow survivors for the podcast, which is also titled Didn’t Die, Vinita and younger brother Rish (Vishal Vijayakumar) have returned to their hometown, more specifically to their childhood home, to stay with older brother Hari (Samrat Chakrabarti) and his wife, Barbara (Katie McCuen). They’re doomsday-prepped in that they seemingly have plenty of food stockpiled, and their existence feels relatively secure, all things considered.
The cozy status quo gets a shake-up when Vinita’s much-despised ex Vincent (George Basil) shows up with a baby—not his, but a foundling spared when her family was killed. That requires some awkward adjusting, but there’s also another, more urgent shift in circumstances: biters, which were formerly strictly nocturnal, have evolved and are now emerging in the daylight.
© Paul Gleason Most of Didn’t Die is filmed in black and white, echoing back to George Romero’s Night of the Living Dead—the grandaddy of zombie films that’s also referenced here by naming a character Barbara, and by having most of the action take place in an isolated country house. But while Night of the Living Dead focused on a group of strangers who must frantically work together to survive, all while not really understanding what they’re up against, Didn’t Die digs into the emotional toll of an ongoing disaster, as experienced by a family that may not always agree on strategy, but shares a deep love.
Didn’t Die‘s script, by director Meera Menon and co-writer Paul Gleason, draws inspiration from the real-life pandemic, especially the wide range of reactions it pulled out of people. For Rish, it’s fear; Hari is overly protective; Vincent chooses self-isolation; Barbara takes a sudden interest in crafting; and Vinita becomes fixated on her podcast—though even she admits “Nobody told me the apocalypse was gonna be so boring.”
Living in the home where they grew up, the siblings can’t help but slip back into nostalgia, which Didn’t Die illustrates with gauzy, happy flashbacks. But despite fleeting moments of joy in lockdown, there are literal monsters prowling around outside, and as Vinita herself tells her listeners, it’s important to live for the future, rather than wallowing in memories of what can never be again.
Though it doesn’t deliver many outright frights, Didn’t Die does an admirable job of capturing the unease of “unprecedented times,” with a particularly eerie sound design that conveys the ambient night-time noise of hungry howls from every direction. The characters have become used to it after hearing it for so long, but it’s freaky all the same. Didn’t Die also, perhaps surprisingly, has doses of humor sprinkled throughout, with welcome moments that keep the characters’ monochromatic world from feeling too gloomy.
Didn’t Die premiered at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival; it does not yet have a release date.
Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.
