Nearly every single person, place, thing, sound, concept and flesh-eating zombie is some kind of joke in Jim Jarmusch's "The Dead Don't Die."
One of the first corpses to come to life is played by Iggy Pop, the proto-punk legend who helped kill the 1960s. Rosie Perez plays a news reporter named Posie Juarez. The little town that descends into chaos is Centerville, named after a town in Frank Zappa's cult video "200 Motels." The mournful title song, by country artist Sturgill Simpson, is funny in and of itself, but there's even more to it.
"Why does that song sound so familiar?" Bill Murray, as Officer Cliff Robertson, wonders when it comes on his radio. "Because," says Adam Driver as fellow Officer Ronnie Peterson, "it's the theme song."
