We’re due for an old-fashioned, no-nonsense zombie movie in the grand George A. Romero tradition.
The last decade has brought Zom-coms, undead musicals, micro-indie shockers and other spins on the zombie menace. Anything but a straightforward tale of brain-chomping ghouls.
“We Bury the Dead” isn’t interested in old-school zombie thrills. Instead, the somber story delivers a treatise on healing as much as a horror.
Yes, the undead litter the landscape, but writer/director Zak Hilditch has other plans for his bedraggled characters. What emerges won’t quicken your pulse, but it might make you look at loss in a whole new way. It’s a shame that Hilditch isn’t always sure which style of zombie movie he’s making.
Daisy Ridley, no stranger to genre films in her post-“Star Wars” life, stars as Ava. Her character volunteers to identify bodies following a U.S. Military accident that unleashed a new type of weapon off Australia’s coast.
The EMP-like device brought death and destruction on a major scale. Now, it’s up to the military to pick up the pieces, with an assist from brave volunteers.
Ava signs up for personal reasons. Her husband (Matt Whelan) is presumed dead following the accidental attack, and she needs to see the body for closure.
Or is it more complicated than that?
She’s joined by a seemingly dense volunteer named Clay (Brenton Thwaites), who treats the work as casually as a McDonald’s fry cook. They couldn’t be more different, but he’s open to helping her get to where her husband was last seen.
Will military officials let them happen? And what about the dead bodies that, according to early reports, refuse to stay dead?
Hilditch (“1922”) knows how to uncork a grisly zombie sequence. He also leverages the undead for maximum creeps. “Dead” is akin to a “Paranormal Activity” film where it pays to watch every part of the screen at all times.
It’s often worth our while.
More of Queen Daisy Ridley at The Kelly Clarkson show as she talks about horror films & a clip from We Bury The Dead♀️#DaisyRidley #WeBuryTheDead pic.twitter.com/LPF1gKJhRI
— Daisy Ridley is queen! (@Scavenger_Jakku) December 16, 2025
The poor undead here click and grind their teeth, a sound that’s unnerving at first and never loses its shock value. Neither do the spare FX, including zombie close-ups that offer a stark departure from the usual undead aesthetic.
Except this isn’t a typical survivalist yarn or blood-drenched affair. Ridley’s Ava is inconsolable, and she must see her husband one last time. She’s even holding out hope that he’s one of the victims who may spring back to life, even if said life is little more than a grunting spectre of his old self.
“We Bury the Dead” offers a grounded, tonally dark character study that demands plenty of its lead actress. Ridley is up to the task, even if the screenplay can’t always say the same.
It can be … dull, without enough backstory or character development to sustain our interest. The most intriguing element is something the movie unveils in methodical fashion. Ava’s marriage may not be as picture-perfect as those flashbacks suggest.
The film proves superior to “Handling the Undead,” knowing that even a stoic genre film needs the occasional jolt to keep the stakes elevated. One such scene, teased in the trailer, shows Hilditch can uncork a dizzying set piece on par with the best zombie auteurs.
It’s so good, in fact, that we’re left teetering between B-movie thrills and a haunting portrait of grief. At its best, “We Bury the Dead” finds common ground between the disparate styles, offering a zombie tale well worth your time.
HiT or Miss: “We Bury the Dead” offers a textured look at grief and healing, all through the lens of a zombie-like outbreak.
Sounds interesting. I’ll have to check it out.
Good review, but Daisy Ridley + the second 2025 movie that treats the Zombie Apocalypse like a therapy session + the U.S. military is the bad guys = hard pass from me.