Movie Review: 'The Civil Dead' is a Chill Dark Comedy
The Civil Dead is a wonderfully laid back ghost story with elements of chill dark comedy.
The Civil Dead (2023)
Directed by Clay Tatum
Written by Clay Tatum, Whitmer Thomas
Starring Clay Tatum, Whitmer Thomas, DeMorge Brown
Release Date February 3rd, 2023
Published February 1st, 2023
The Civil Dead is a shaggy charmer of a comedy. Written by, directed by, and starring Clay Tatum, The Civil Dead has wonderful high concept premise delivered with a low key, mumblecore style charm. Clay Tatum plays Clay, a struggling photographer living in Los Angeles with his lovely wife, Whitney (Whitney Weir), also a photographer, though slightly more successfully. As we join the story, Whitney is leaving for a job out of town and chiding Clay to do more than just drink beer and lay around while she's out of town.
Taking his wife's words to heart, Clay ventures out to take photos. While snapping a pick of a strange bit of graffiti, Clay runs into his old friend Whit (Whitmer Thomas). Whit is dead. Clay doesn't yet know that his friend is dead but he does know that he's eager to get away from this awkward reunion. Clay and Whit were friends before they moved to L.A. We will learn over the course of their reintroduction how odd it is that they lived in the same town and ran in the same circle but never ran across each other. It's probably because Whit was more invested in their friendship than Clay was.
Politeness prevents Clay from making a clean getaway from his old friend whom he ends up awkwardly inviting back to his apartment for a beer. While Clay gets drunk, Whit just enjoys having company, no one else can see Whit, because he's dead. Clay awkwardly drives around Whit's claiming to be a ghost until the morning after they hung out. Whit is still there when Clay wakes up, seemingly unable to take a hint that he's not wanted. Doubling down on the idea that Clay is the only one who can see him, the duo leave the apartment and have a bizarre interaction with Clay's boring neighbor which proves that Whit is indeed a ghost that only Clay can see.
The Civil Dead is as much about manners, politeness and the awkward navigating of social relationships as it is about a guy who can talk to a ghost. Tatum and Thomas wring wonderful laughs from just how awkward they are together and how much you root for them to overcome the awkwardness to be friends. That's a strange desire, wanting the ghost and his living acquaintance to be friends but that's what The Civil Dead inspired in me. I wanted Clay and Whit to be bros and do wacky ghost and living guy stuff like winning poker games.
There are dark elements to the movie that play into the final act, but the lasting pieces of The Civil Dead come from the incredibly charming and awkward friendship of two desperately awkward and weird men. Clay and Whit are both weird guys but not in the broad sense of the term. They are weird in a very relatable way, weird in the way we're all a little weird when no one is looking. Now, imagine being your weird self but suddenly their is a shy, slightly morose, ghost lingering nearby and you get a sense of the charm of The Civil Dead.
Find my archive of more than 20 years and nearly 2000 movie reviews at SeanattheMovies.blogspot.com. Find my modern review archive on my Vocal Profile, linked here. Follow me on Twitter at PodcastSean. Follow the archive blog on Twitter at SeanattheMovies. Listen to me talk about movies on the Everyone's a Critic Movie Review Podcast. If you have enjoyed what you have read, consider subscribing to my work here on Vocal. If you'd like to support my writing, you can do so by making a monthly pledge or by leaving a one-time tip. Thanks!
About the Creator
Sean Patrick
Hello, my name is Sean Patrick He/Him, and I am a film critic and podcast host for the I Hate Critics Movie Review Podcast I am a voting member of the Critics Choice Association, the group behind the annual Critics Choice Awards.
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