'Didn't Die' Review: Modern Zombie Movie Works Brilliantly as a Family Drama But Lacks the Horror | Sundance 2025

Since George Romero’s seminal 1968 horror movie Night of the Living Dead, we’ve seen just about every zombie story you can think of. From mutant, flesh-eating animals in Zombeavers to apocalyptic comedies such as Zombieland right up to the wildly popular Western-esque The Last of Us, zombies are literally and figuratively constantly coming back from the dead. This has come with some downsides, as it’s becoming increasingly more difficult for filmmakers to create ideas in this subgenre that genuinely feel fresh and unique. Premiering at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, Meera Menon’s Didn’t Die forges its own bloody path by taking the story back to the barest of bones. While Romero’s haunting black-and-white DNA is all over it, Menon manages to design her own zombie apocalypse by making the monsters secondary and focusing closely on a family of misfits trying to navigate the complexities of relationships, both familial and romantic, all while the world has become a hollowed and desolate version of what it once was.

Imagine a Little Miss Sunshine family dramedy blended with the gritty realism of the most restrained zombie tropes — threads of 28 Days Later are sewn in throughout — and you have Didn’t Die. Menon's film doesn’t always land its character-driven mumblecore style, sometimes force-feeding its audience what they should feel instead of letting them infer for themselves. It’s also tied to its central concept of the movie’s protagonist being a podcaster, which adds nothing and only distracts from the character dynamics that are the real heart of the story. Still, it’s a surprisingly heartfelt microcosm of what happens to the human spirit when living is relegated to survival, and how, even in the most dire of situations, human connection will always remain crucial.

What Is ‘Didn’t Die’ About?

The world has become accustomed to the zombie apocalypse when Didn’t Die opens. A young couple walks down a deserted road, with a young baby strapped to the mother. They refer to the zombies as “biters,” and they feel safe walking in the open road as biters don’t come out during the day. However, that logic is obviously no longer relevant, as the couple is soon attacked and killed.

We’re then introduced to our protagonist, Vinitia (Kiran Deol), a sardonic podcast host who travels the country with her younger brother, Rish (Vishal Vijayaumar). Vinita is a quick hand at biter-killing, stabbing them with aggressive ease, while Rish has never been able to pluck up the courage to take one down himself. Rish is clearly traumatized by the apocalypse, with a heartbreaking backstory that ties into the movie’s core idea of how grief can stay with a person forever.

The two return to their hometown to visit their older brother, the pragmatic Hari (Samrat Chakrabarti), and his doting wife Barbara (Katie McCuen). Their visit home leads them to cross paths with Vincent (George Basil), Vinita’s ex, who rescued the surviving baby from the bodies of her parents killed in the cold opening. The increase in danger and threat that the biters bring now that they can attack during the day forces this extended family together, as they try to find meaning in a life that only revolves around survival at any cost.

'Didn't Die' Skimps on the Zombies and Scares

Don't Die isn't for anyone looking for gnarly attack scenes and gory death sequences. The lack of scares, even though it becomes clear quite quickly that horror isn’t what Menon is aiming for, is disappointing. While the focus on dramedy tropes set against a horror environment does make for an interesting contrast, the lack of a terrorizing atmosphere and gory death scenes is very much felt. Still, Menon is able to craft a palpable sense of dread, even in the happier moments of the movie. When the siblings are getting along, when the baby is smiling and laughing, Menon’s direction ensures that we feel how fleeting every happy moment is. There’s both an inherent sadness and great affection in the way Menon frames her characters — knowing when to let them lead the camera, like in a hilarious fight scene between Vinita and Vincent, and when to hold in tight on every movement of a character’s face and body.

When the movie is a clear reflection of the COVID pandemic, it hits its stride as a powerful and honest portrait of what grief looks like. From Vinita’s snarky facade and Rish’s traumatized fragility to Hari’s bottling up of his grief and Barbara doing everything she can to hold her in-laws together, we see how loss takes form in many different ways. There are times when you almost wish Didn’t Die was simply set during the COVID pandemic, because this mediation on family and loss is so much better explored than any of the zombie apocalypse aspects or the podcast gimmick. Every time a biter appears or Vinita starts recording, it’s an unwanted detour just when the movie starts building a consistent rhythm. Menon’s script, co-written with Paul Gleason, is best when it focuses its attention on naturalistic dialogue between the characters. When it tries to inject sweeping meditations on philosophy and life through Vinita’s podcast monologues — none of which are particularly groundbreaking — it adds a forced quality to a movie that is otherwise nicely self-guiding.

'Didn't Die' Is at Its Best When It Focuses on Its Eclectic Characters

With such a focus on characters and the very subtle nuances and complexities dug deep into their dynamics, casting the right actors was absolutely crucial. Kiran Deol nails a protagonist who hides her existential dread and anxiety with irreverent and snarky humor. Again, her podcasting narration doesn’t really bring much to the plot, but Deol’s switch between sparring with her brothers and trying to reckon with her feelings for Vincent creates a layered and empathetic character. Just when Vinita’s humor starts to play down the threat of the zombie apocalypse, it just takes one shot of Vijayakumar’s terrified face to bring the stakes up again. The constant flicker of trauma behind his eyes makes up for the lack of horror in the movie.

Samrat Chakrabarti and Katie McCuen’s chemistry forms a strong backbone both for their family and the plot. Their relationship feels lived-in, as they stave away the world’s horrors with cocktail hour and dinner parties. But there’s something particularly affecting in McCuen’s portrayal of Barbara. While her bedazzled, glitzy attire — which extends to her zombie-killing spear — initially frames her as superficial, she ends up being the most astute and wise character out of the entire ensemble. Topped off by Basil’s Vincent, who fills in a zombie trope the world can’t get enough of (the reluctant father figure popularized by Pedro Pascal), the Didn’t Die cast are great on their own but form the core of the movie’s intent when together.

Didn’t Die works best when it focuses on its cast of compelling characters trying to navigate loss. Loss of friends and family, loss of a world they once knew, and loss of meaning in a new life they’ve been forced to lead. It’s disappointing that Menon and Gleason feel obligated to spoonfeed the themes of her script, with famous quotes on grief separating the chapters of the movie, which immediately takes the audience out of the world that has been built up so well. With a cast of characters who are so fully realized and a keen eye for human interaction, Menon’s talents would be better suited to following regular people in the world as we know it. The horror and zombie aspects of Didn’t Die are merely distractions from where Menon’s talents truly lie — capturing the quiet subtleties that make us human.

Didn't Die premiered at this year's Sundance Film Festival.