Sundance review: 'Didn't Die' delivers shocks and a few chuckles, in a zombie movie for the digital age

Director Meera Menon’s “Didn’t Die” is like a “Night of the Living Dead” for the digital age, a zombie movie that also delivers some acerbic commentary about our difficulties connecting without technology.

Vinita (played by Kiran Deol) hosts a podcast, called “Didn’t Die,” in which she dispenses advice, wisdom and jokes about surviving the zombie apocalypse that has overrun the land. Vinita and her younger brother, Rish (Vishal Vijayakumar), have returned to their hometown to do a live broadcast, for as many humans who are willing to come out of hiding to be in the audience. That proves to be difficult, as the undead — called “biters,” for obvious reasons — seem to be evolving, both moving faster and no longer only walking at night. 

Vinita and Rish are staying with their oldest brother, Hari (Samrat Chakrabarti) and his wife, Barbara (Katie McCuen), whose post-apocalyptic hobby is bedazzling her weapons. They’re staying in their parents’ house, and don’t about what happened to them.

At the podcast show, in the town’s old courthouse, Vinita is surprised when her ex, Vincent (George Basil), shows up. She’s even more surprised by what he’s carrying: A baby, who was left for dead when her parents were consumed by the “biters” in the movie’s prologue. They all go back to the house, and have some serious discussions about whether they can shelter a baby in an increasingly terrifying world. 

Menon (whose financial thriller “Equity” played Sundance in 2016) and her co-writer Paul Gleason — who’s also the cinematographer and Menon’s husband — shot the movie, mostly, in black-and-white, so the parallel’s to George Romero’s classic are clear. This is a simple story of survival, of a family holing up in a house and hoping against hope that the monsters stay outside.

Vinita’s podcast musings — about, for example, the dwindling opportunities for sex during a zombie pandemic — act as an amusing running commentary. Zombies, throughout movie history, have served as a stand-in for “the other,” whether it’s disease or conformity or materialism, and Menon and Gleason here use them to muse on the lack of connection in our technological world.

The other thing about good zombie movies is that you can dismiss the subtext and just enjoy the running and chasing and dodging zombies. Menon delivers on that score in “Didn’t Die,” serving up a brooding tension and a brisk action pace.

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‘Didn’t Die’

★★★1/2

Screening in the Midnight program of the 2025 Sundance Film Festival. Screens again: Wednesday, January 29, 8:10 p.m., Redstone 2, Park City; Saturday, February 1, 8:50 p.m., Redstone 3, Park City; Sunday, February 2, 9:30 p.m., Broadway 6, Salt Lake City. Online screenings Thursday, January 30, 8 a.m. to Sunday, February 2, 11:55 p.m. (All times Mountain time zone.) Not rated, but probably R for violence, language and some sexual content. Running time: 93 minutes.