Festival Predictions

2024 Sundance Film Festival Predictions: Thea Hvistendahl’s Handling the Undead

Published on November 12, 2023

It was a casting announcement that brought joy to fans of Joachim Trier’s The Worst Person in the World. Actors Renate Reinsve and Anders Danielsen Lie reunited for another film, under the direction of fellow Norwegian filmmaker Thea Hvistendahl. Production on Handling the Undead (aka Håndtering av udøde) took place in Oslo in October of 2022 and it’ll be ready for a launch via the Neon folks in 2024. Also starring Bjørn Sundquist and Bente Børsum, this Scandi-horror drama deals with grief and mortality and extends itself onto more than one family. Hvistendahl had her 2019 short film premiere at SXSW so programmers there will also be keeping tabs on this one. This is based on the second novel by Swedish author John Ajvide Lindqvist, also known for Let the Right One In. The cinematographer here is Pål Ulvik Rokseth – The Burning Sea (2021).

Gist: 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.

Production Co./Producers: Einar Film’s Kristin Emblem and Guri Neby.

Prediction: Midnight.

U.S. Distributor: Neon.

Eric Lavallée

Eric Lavallée is the founder, CEO, editor-in-chief, film journalist and critic at IONCINEMA.com (founded in 2000). Eric is a regular at Sundance, Cannes and TIFF. He has a BFA in Film Studies at the Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema. In 2013 he served as a Narrative Competition Jury Member at the SXSW Film Festival. He was an associate producer on Mark Jackson's This Teacher (2018 LA Film Festival, 2018 BFI London). In 2022 he served as a New Flesh Comp for Best First Feature at the 2022 Fantasia Intl. Film Festival. Current top films for 2022 include Tár (Todd Field), All That Breathes (Shaunak Sen), Aftersun (Charlotte Wells).