While shooting photos of a mattress spray painted with the phrase "5G killed my dog", Clay notices a man in the background and is annoyed that he is ruining the shot.

Whit reluctantly agrees to give Clay space and follows Belle, who had been the hostess at Arnold's game, home with her date.

[7] The cabin in the film was in Frazier Mountain, California, where the production team broke a family heirloom of the owner, which mirrors the breaking of the Blueberry horse statue in the movie.

The website's consensus reads: "With a satisfying blend of humor and melancholy, The Civil Dead finds creative partners Clay Tatum and Whitmer Thomas taking a haunting look at the pitfalls of friendship.

"[12] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 66 out of 100, based on 5 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.

[13] Jeannette Catsoulis of The New York Times noted, "The movie's lighting is warm and the soundtrack close to perfect, yet underneath lies a persistent melancholy, a pervasive sense of men not making it in a place where the true terror is loneliness"[14] and Noel Murray of the Los Angeles Times wrote, "The movie's premise is clever; but what really makes it work is that these two use this ghost schtick as a way to examine the ways that friendship can be a hassle.

Prince of The Film Stage wrote, "The fact that both leads are real-life friends goes a long way, given the baggy pacing and some of the more uneven comedic moments, and Tatum's usage of long takes helps increase the awkward tension of both characters' forced arrangement.

"[16] In December 2023, Esquire named The Civil Dead as the 20th best movie of 2023, praising it as "enormously funny" and "a very promising debut.

"[17] The Civil Dead won the Audience Award for Best Narrative Feature at the 2022 Slamdance Film Festival.

[18] It won the Jury Award for Best North American Narrative Feature at the 2022 Mammoth Lakes Film Festival.