Director Meera Menon and actress Kiran Deol talk zom com Didn’t Die

Courtesy of Level 33 Entertainment

Didn't Die is a clever horror comedy set during a zombie apocalypse. It stars Kiran Deol as the outspoken podcast host Vinita. The film also pays tribute to Night of the Living Dead, including its black and white aesthetic and even a character named Barbara, who looks a lot like Judith O'Dea from Geoge A. Romero’s groundbreaking film.

Didn’t Die premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2025 and will have a theatrical release on March 6. We recently spoke with the movie's director, Meera Menon, and Deol about podcasting at the end of the world and the spirit of indie filmmaking. This interview was edited slightly for clarity. 

The Horror Lounge: How did you come up with the idea to create a movie about a podcast set during a zombie apocalypse?

Meera Menon: There were so many reasons I did this. I wanted to create something that felt like a reaction and counter to the hyper systemized and larger sets I found myself fortunate enough to direct on. I had great experiences on these big television shows, but the artistic itch in me was to do something that was the opposite of all of that and very guerilla, grassroots, small, intimate, loose, and born out of a spontaneous act to create with a core set of collaborators, mainly my husband, who I wrote it with and who shot the movie, and my family and friends who I went to film school with, and a group of actors I put together.

I also wanted to develop the script with the actors and have it be an organic process. Within the canon of independent film inspirations, it ran the gamut from Kevin Smith’s Clerks to George Romero's Night of the Living Dead in terms of the approach to filmmaking. These are two types of movies and two filmmakers I love.

For me, I really love zombie films and the genre. I got to work on a lot of cool shows, including an episode of "The Walking Dead" and "Fear the Walking Dead." Specifically, my episode of "The Walking Dead" really sparked in me an interest in the story potential of people that are trying to find meaning and hope and continue on in the context of all this violence.

In my episode of "The Walking Dead," one of the storylines involves trying to find a lightbulb. They visit this abandoned movie theater to find a lightbulb because they found a movie projector, but they don’t have a lightbulb to be able to play a movie. They want to play a movie for children in the Kingdom who have never seen a movie. It’s a really sweet, poignant storyline in the context of all this violence. It’s about finding the things that still matter, that can make people still feel hopeful.

That’s where the inspiration for the main character of our movie came from, setting a character like this, focused on that kind of mission, in the context of the apocalypse. Also, Romero’s Night of the Living Dead, in my mind, was a ghost story. I think that tone and tenor was something I was interested in.

The Horror Lounge: Can you talk about the two narratives, including everything going on with the survivors, but also Vinita’s podcast? What was the process like of writing those two narratives?

Meera Menon: We immediately thought about Kiran for this part because she has an indomitable spirit. I think if she was faced with the end of the world like this, she would still keep doing stand-up comedy. She has a lot to say. It’s who she is. I was interested in that flowering of something that continues on, despite all of the forces of death around it. I knew that with Kiran, because of how much she has to say and offer, that she’d give us a lot of stuff. We’d record on her all the time, whether in character, whether the camera was on or not. We’d record her chattering. That continued all through post [production], too. Once in a while, I’d ask her to riff on a topic and send it to me in a voice note.  Her character was inspired by that confessional style of podcasting. We would record her holding a Zoom mic. That’s how we got a lot of our sound for the film.

Kiran Deol as Vinita - Courtesy of Level 33 Entertainment

The Horror Lounge: Kiran, what was it like for you to shoot all of those podcasting scenes? I also thought that your character becomes much more vulnerable and open through those podcasts.

Kiran Deol: When you watch zombie movies, you always feel like you’d be a different and better person in a doomsday scenario, but if COVID taught us anything, it’s that you’re still the same person you always were. If you’re lazy or sarcastic, you’re still going to be that way. I think it's very funny that someone who is obsessed with their job would find the zombies to be an inconvenience. I think that was our goal. Her podcast is a way of approaching the world, living in the world, and a way of having her own version of focus and vulnerability. It’s the conduit into her actual personal and emotional life. It’s cool that we got to mine that through the podcast. She does it through the microphone. There’s something telling about the personal and private, especially since everyone’s online now. How do we choose to show up for ourselves in our own personal lives?

The Horror Lounge: Can you talk about some of the similarities between horror and comedy, especially since your background is that of a stand-up comic, Kiran?

Kiran Deol: I think they’re both much harder than drama, if I’m being honest. When people don’t laugh, you know. If you’re sitting in Hamnet, people may be sniffling, but it’s quiet. Comedians really measure the success of a set off of the laughs that they’re hearing. I think it’s so much harder. It’s easier to make someone cry than it is to make someone laugh. Laughter is so deeply specific to who you are, your culture, your background, and to what you find funny. It does have the same timing as horror, which is very universal, especially if something is very jump scary. Someone once said they’re both the element of surprise. What works for comedy and what makes you laugh is this idea that you weren’t expecting something to happen. The same thing is true for horror. Surprising someone is very difficult, and I don’t recommend it [Laughs].

The Horror Lounge: I love the use of the baby in this movie, but also the survivor support group. Can you talk about those two unique elements of the film?

Meera Menon: I’ll start, and then I’ll let Kiran talk about the support group. That was designed for her to host and create an environment that would be awkward and funny. The baby is my baby. I had that baby earlier that year. I feel like the baby is the heart of the film. It’s also somewhat inspired from "The Walking Dead" episode that I wrote. There was a tribe of people called The Whisperers that hide under zombie skin. One of them had a baby. The baby starts crying and attracting real zombies. The leader of that group demands that the mother sacrifice the baby. It turns into a high-stakes moment of leaving the baby out in the field to see if anyone saves that baby. Eventually, someone does. It stuck with me, the stakes that the rawness of life could bring to a story like this. We designed it around what we call instant production value of this adorable child I had [Laughs].

Kiran Deol: I thought that podcast scene was so fun. We really got to improvise it. It felt like going back to an open mic. Nobody was laughing. It was a nightmare.

Meera Menon: They didn’t know they could laugh. They thought they were in a serious zombie movie.

Kiran Deol: It was so awkward and it also fits. They’re not trying to laugh. Everyone in their life is dead. It was like a throwback to an open mic, when you’re trying to work a room that has no interest in what you’re doing.

Courtesy of Level 33 Entertainment

The Horror Lounge: Anything else that you want to add about the movie?

Meera Menon: Putting out an indie film today feels like podcasting in the zombie apocalypse. I don’t know who it’ll reach or who’ll go see it, but I felt like it was important to make and to keep making independent films in any way we can exactly for this reason. As a filmmaker, I feel like the only opportunities out there are these big things. I fell in love with movies because of the weird ones that you discover. I just hope that other people still feel the same way and will come out and see it.

Kiran Deol: There is something so striking about how comedy has become independent. How people discover media is so much more grassroots than it used to be. There’s something exciting about the spirit of that, and maybe this will be the renaissance of the 70s again with independent film.

I’ll also say that it’s rare, as a woman, to play someone who isn’t focused on the baby, or is sarcastic, or isn’t focused on being the lead in a rom com. That’s just very rare. It was very interesting to read the Sundance reviews. They said she’s [Vinita] wry and sardonic. I realized I don’t see these kinds of women, and certainly not featuring a South Asian family. I just don’t see that represented in media. I think there was a really cool, collaborative opportunity to make something with a character that’s different.

The Horror Lounge: Thank you both so much for chatting with us!

Catch Didn't Die in theaters beginning March 6.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iImLUetlEDk