When I read that there was a new John Ajvide Lindqvist adaptation in the pipeline, my interest was immediately piqued. There is a special connection between me and John Ajvide Lindqvist – his novel Let The Right One In and subsequent film adaptation was one of my first dives into Nordic horror where it wasn’t all blood and guts (hello Dead Snow and Evil Ed). The book was, and still is, one of my favourite horror novels and its adaptation was handled perfectly.
Then came the US remake and a TV series – and even those still managed to capture that darkness he so magically writes about.
That is the thing with his work – the adaptations of his books have been handled so well. Look at what Ali Abassi did with the author’s short story Border (Grans). Turning a short story into a feature film that was so unique, Hollywood actress Audrey Plaza held her own screening in LA to share it with an audience, as she championed the film: “I have no connection to this movie and no right to be doing this, but you should really see it.“
Enter Thea Hvistendahl, an extremely talented up-and-coming Norwegian director, whose short films I encourage you to seek out and watch, who wanted to adapt one of Lindqvist’s novels. But, the book she had wanted was not the one she ended up shooting.
“I had really wanted to adapt Little Star“, the director explains over a video call from Oslo. “But the rights were not available.”
The director had set her sights on that book for a couple of years, but it was not looking like it would be possible, then randomly one day her producers met Lindqvist‘s agents at a lunch.
“They said I was still interested in the book and then the agents said that it was still not available – but, that Handling The Undead had just become available.”
Thea hadn’t read this particular story but she quickly did and loved it. She ended up inheriting the script Lindqvist had written for a Swedish director 15 years ago as the book had come out in 2005.
“The first job I had was making some revisions to the script as there were some parts that I wanted to change and I didn’t exactly know how. I ended up rewriting most of it and gradually realised that what I had to do was actually to peel away a lot of stuff to get deeper into what it was really about.”
Re-writing a script originally done by the author of the book that the film was based on was a difficult and daunting decision, and when it was completed Thea shared it with Lindqvist to seek his approval.
“He was very generous and said that he trusted me to do what I wanted.”
By the end of 2018, Thea had received the rights for the script and then she pitched it at the beginning of 2019. At that time it almost got made for Netflix but then things happened and it didn’t go ahead – instead, Thea had more time to work on the project, eventually shooting it in 2022.
When one of the first stills from the film appeared showing Renate Reinsve, my curiosity and excitement to see the film increased even more. Then I read about the involvement of Anders Danielsen Lie, the pairing of the two stars was both exciting but also questionable; were they going to appear together again so soon after The Worst Person in the World? It is a question Thea has been asked far too often.
“Anders was cast quite early on in the process but then I had a few more roles to cast which included Renate’s part, but at the time she was unavailable. Then the shoot was put on hold and so we ended up re-casting again“, the director explains. “In the audition, she just gave the part something completely different.”
The director was aware that the pair had played together in Joachim Trier‘s film and she was concerned that it might have been a little “uncool” to cast the same pair in her film so soon after, but she was so taken by her audition that she really wanted Renate in the film.
“They don’t play in the same storyline, so they are not like a couple or anything, it is going to be something different.”
It is worth noting that all this happened before The Worst Person In The World exploded into everyone’s hearts. The idea of seeing them both in this very different film is an exciting premise, though horror fans might remember that Anders Danielsen Lie has appeared in a zombie movie before with The Night Eats The World.
“I went to Anders first, he is playing a difficult part where he is mourning his wife but then she wakes up again. It is absurd and he doesn’t know what is happening which can be equally a bit humourous. It was important to me to have someone who could play the part truthfully even though the concept was far-fetched.”
Talking of zombies – was it a daunting task to make another zombie film in a genre that doesn’t seem to die? The answer is that this isn’t your average kind of zombie movie, let alone a horror.
“A lot of people are not fans of zombie films. That was a challenge for me, but many who read the script said that it is not your typical zombie film. I wasn’t too worried about going down that route because I didn’t try to fulfil the usual tropes, even though I was playing with them.”
The director describes the film as more a drama with zombie elements – the hardest part is describing it because this doesn’t fit neatly into a zombie or horror genre.
“I was more worried about being the third film adapted by John Ajvide Lindqvist’s books – there was a lot to prepare for and a long way to fall.”
I think of the French series The Returned that appeared on Netflix in its very early days where residents of a small village in the French mountains start to see the dead come back to them – completely normal, no snarling teeth or hunger for flesh, just a lot of people really freaked out. Has Thea always been a fan of horror – if a fan at all?
“Not so much – I was more interested in Mullholland Drive which was just uneasy and unsettling. I am much more drawn to psychological horrors like The Shining where it is more about humans going crazy rather than the monster aspect. It is the mystery and uneasy atmospheres that attract me.”
When it comes to influences, Thea cites the likes of Lynne Ramsey as one of her favourites in terms of style.
“I also love the films of Victor Erice, a Spanish filmmaker who made The Spirit of the Beehive film. I like how those directors tell a story visually rather than relying too much on plot or dialogue – it is much more about framing and the cinematic experience, there is somehow a poetry in the grittiness.”
Handling The Undead has yet to get a UK release but rest assured we will let you know as soon as we hear something. In the mean time go and check out the directors short films on Youtube!
