We Bury the Dead
When the U.S. accidentally detonates an experimental weapon off the coast of Tasmania, its capital city of Hobart is decimated and its entire population is killed. Ava (Daisy Ridley), a Californian, volunteers for body retrieval in hopes of finding her husband Mitch (Matt Whelan), who was on a business retreat at a resort on the southern part of the island. Ava is astonished when the volunteers are told by the military in charge of the operation that 'we've been observing some unusual behavior in some of the deceased.' Ava overhears conjecture that those who 'come back online' do so because they have 'unfinished business' and her hopes grow that she may be able to find real closure with the man she married in "We Bury the Dead."
Laura's Review: B
Perhaps the scariest element of writer/director Zak Hilditch's ("1922") unique take on the zombie genre is that it is the first time in my recollection where the U.S. has been made the bad guy by a country we consider an ally. While the film has some tense moments, it is more eerie than terrifying, Hilditch going more for the emotional fallout among survivors than sheer horror. Daisy Ridley continues to exhibit range far beyond her "Star Wars" days as a woman dealing with grief exacerbated by guilt.
We'll learn some, but not all, of Ava's story in opening minutes as news reports show the horrific devastation in Australia while we hear Ava's distraught phone call to her husband and see flashbacks of the happy couple at their wedding. After Ava's assigned to a Body Retrieval Unit, Lieutenant Wilkie (Kym Jackson) directs her hatred towards America, telling her she thinks Americans should have been banned from the rescue effort. Soon Ava's moving slowly through homes searching for victims, finding families, the elderly and a couple entwined on a shower floor. When her first partner, another woman, succumbs to her emotions, Ava is paired with Clay (Brenton Thwaites, "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales"), a foul-mouthed, chain smoking builder whose motivations will turn out to be as complicated as her own. When they find a grossly obese victim lying on her bed, he departs for the bathroom when they've only managed to drag her halfway out of her home, his comments less than compassionate. Ava will sit on the floor and reflect on the woman's wedding picture hanging on a wall, humanizing and relating to her.
Clay will be delighted when he finds a well preserved vintage sports car in a garage, but while he's going over it Ava will spy a man standing behind a tool rack, his eyes abnormal, his face streaked in black. They stare at each other, then she whispers for Clay, who immediately follows protocol, lighting a flare outside for soldiers to find them. They promptly shoot the man in the head. Ava believes the military is making assumptions too quickly.
Clay's interest in sports vehicles will go into overdrive when they enter a motorcycle garage, its back room a tableau of dead bikers and their women engaged in all kinds of hedonistic behavior. Ava takes the opportunity to ask him if he'd be willing to ride a bike down to the Woodbridge resort her husband had been staying at, an area that has been closed to civilians, and he agrees, but the two will be split up when a soldier, Riley (Mark Coles Smith), saves them from a dead attacker in an area where they should not be. If at first Ava sympathizes with the man who lost his pregnant wife Katie (Chloe Hurst), memories of her own failure to conceive beginning to fill in blanks in her own history, Riley's grief will take an irrational, creepy turn.
Hilditch created two characters who have little in common and whose lives would never have crossed paths in Ava and Cody, then bonds them with a common goal. Ridley and Thwaites work perfectly together, Ava's compassion affecting Cody while Cody's avoidance in hard partying turns out to have an appeal for Ava. The two form a beautiful connection based on shared loss, his of a different nature, and trust. Coles Smith, too, creates a compelling character, evoking both sympathy and fear. The movie, shot in Hobart, Tasmania and the director's home town in Western Australia, looks stylish, director of photography Steve Annis ("I Am Mother") creating eerie scenes with a red tint and emphasizing the vastness of the landscape with low angle shots. Clark's ("Lisey's Story") score resembles a quickened heartbeat embellished with female vocals. Makeup effects offer us a zombie we haven't seen before, sound adding another layer, their presence announced by a grinding teeth so violent, they begin to break.
In the press notes, Hilditch mentions the influence of "28 Days Later" and his climax is oddly similar to an event portrayed in 2025's "28 Years Later." With "We Bury the Dead," the filmmaker stresses the continuance of humankind even as we learn to let go of loved ones.
Robin's Review: B
Vertical releases "We Bury the Dead" in theaters on 1/2/2026.
