After a very brief acting debut in Oslo, August 31st, Renate Reinsve reteamed with Anders Danielsen Lie and Joachim Trier for The Worst Person in the World, picking up Best Actress at Cannes, and the rest is history. Now, the actors are reuniting for a new Norwegian horror drama.
Picked up by NEON, Handling the Undead brings together Reinsve and Danielsen Lie, as well as Bjørn Sundquist (Witch Hunters), Bente Børsum (Exit), and og Bahars Pars (A Man Called Ove), marking the feature debut of director Thea Hvistendahl, who previously directed the documentary Adjø Montebello and several short films, including Virgins4lyfe which was nominated for the Grand Jury Award at SXSW.
Handling the Undead is based on a novel by John Ajvide Lindqvist (Border, Let the Right One In), who co-wrote the script by Hvistendahl. On an abnormally hot summer day in Oslo, a strange electric field surrounds the city as a collective migraine spreads across town. TVs, lightbulbs, and electronics go haywire, the chaos reaching a debilitating crescendo when suddenly, it’s over. Handling the Undead is a character driven horror/drama dealing with fundamental emotions around grief and mortality and the battle of accepting what we can’t control which weaves together three families through their loss.
With production already underway, see the first look below and read our interview with Reinsve here.