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Handling the Undead

Name: Handling the Undead
Director: Thea Hvistendahl
Released: 2024
Duration: 98 min

Representation Score

6.5/10

Good

2024

Director

Thea Hvistendahl

Runtime

98 minutes

Average Rating

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New Showbiz Analysis

Handling the Undead is a culturally specific exploration of Norwegian grief that prioritizes existential questions over demographic diversity. It deconstructs traditional social structures and the stability of the domestic sphere through a psychological lens. However, the film remains rooted in a traditionally homogeneous demographic context. The absence of racial diversity and non-straight or non-cisgender identities confines its representation to historically specific boundaries. Ultimately, the film excels in subverting traditional gender roles and using supernatural elements as metaphors for psychological trauma, despite a lack of overt representation of underrepresented groups.

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Category Breakdown

Does Handling the Undead have LGBTQ+ representation?

Fair

The film centers on traditional families and restoring lost partners, without explicitly addressing non-straight or non-cisgender identities. It stays within conventional romantic storylines.

How does Handling the Undead portray gender?

Fair

The movie disrupts traditional gender roles by examining the breakdown of masculine identities in the face of the supernatural. It portrays the home as a place of instability rather than order.

How racially and ethnically diverse is Handling the Undead?

Limited

The cast reflects the homogeneous demographics of post-war Norway, with no indication of color-blind casting or significant racial diversity among main characters.

How does Handling the Undead represent religion and culture?

Good

The film challenges moral order by presenting the undead as complex beings rather than monsters. It depicts the family unit as a site of chaos and psychological trauma.

Does Handling the Undead include disability representation?

Fair

The story uses grief and trauma as metaphors for invisible disabilities and sensory dissociation. However, there are no characters with specific physical or neurodivergent disabilities.

Present on Screen

Subverts traditional masculine roles by exploring the breakdown of stoicism in the face of the supernatural.
Uses the supernatural as a sophisticated metaphor for psychological trauma and invisible disabilities.
Challenges the sanctity of the nuclear family by portraying it as a site of vulnerability and dysfunction.

Limited or Absent

Lacks explicit representation of LGBTQ+ identities or narratives that challenge the assumption that everyone is straight or cisgender.
Reflects significant demographic homogeneity with little evidence of racial or ethnic diversity.
Does not feature characters with specific physical or neurodivergent disabilities.

Official Synopsis

On a hot summer day in Oslo, the dead mysteriously awaken, and three families are thrown into chaos when their deceased loved ones come back to them. Who are they, and what do they want?

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