After far too long of similar-type zombie movies where people get chased by undead of varying speeds, we have now had years of filmmakers looking to explore the subgenre in a more human, emotional context. Eventually, things will revert to the good ol’ Dawn of the Dead-style, but for now, we’re fortunate that movies like We Bury the Dead are still getting made. Australian filmmaker Zak Hilditch offers more than post-apocalyptic chaos, with less attention focused on the undead than on the struggles of the living.
Daisy Ridley, continuing to make bold choices in her post-Star Wars career, plays Ava Newman, a shellshocked woman who arrives in Tasmania in the wake of a manmade disaster caused by an American detonation of a deadly experiment. The fallout has left hundreds of thousands of people dead. One of them could be Ava’s husband, Mitch (Matt Whelan), who was on the remote island for business. Ava signs on to join a body retrieval group, in hopes of venturing into the desolation to find Mitch, whether he is dead or alive.
In a typical zombie movie, Ava’s mission would be filled with her constantly in fear of being attacked by a shambling corpse, but We Bury the Dead has larger things on its mind. The film finds Ava exploring neighborhoods furthest from the blast’s epicenter, entering homes and removing bodies so the dead can be buried. What we get, and what Ava experiences, are flashes of the lives of those who have perished senselessly. She walks cautiously through these residences, seeing glimpses of the people that once lived there, and it forces her to consider the life she has lived up to that point.
Joining Ava in this mission is Clay (Brenton Thwaites), whose cynicism and reckless nature offers her the chance to let her guard down. When we first meet Ava, she seems a little uptight. We understand her melancholy, but there’s more to it than that. Clay, who has no qualms taking things that once belonged to the dead, including a motorcycle, slowly draws Ava into his orbit until she’s riding on the back of the bike with him and loving it.
Of course, things aren’t quite this simple. Ava and Clay quickly learn that a strange development has some of the dead not staying dead for long. Hilditch doesn’t lean into this genre trope too much, so when they do encounter an undead threat, it comes as a genuine shock. Each run-in forces Ava to examine her knotty relationship with Mitch, and her part in their complicated situation. More is revealed along the way that completely reorients how we feel about Ava’s journey, and her.
Unsurprisingly, zombies, although that word is never actually used, aren’t the greatest threat that Ava faces. Hilditch mixes things up with an extended, shockingly claustrophobic sequence involving Riley (Mark Coles Smith), a soldier also in mourning. Wielding his tragedy and authority as manipulative tools, Riley forces Ava into an entirely different kind of danger, one that single women dealing with toxic males will be uniquely aware of.
While We Bury the Dead is more contemplative than most horrors, it still affords Ridley the chance to run around with an axe for a while. Maybe not quite as cool as a lightsaber, but it’s still pretty badass to see Ridley swing it. As Ava cuts through the undead, she’s also slicing through her grief and coming to grips with what she wants out of the future. Hilditch raises a lot of questions, but allows the viewer to consider the answers for themselves. It’s not often that a zombie movie asks its audience to think about anything, much less in the January doldrums, so don’t miss this one while you have the chance.
We Bury the Dead opens in theaters on January 2nd via Vertical.
