WE BURY THE DEAD: A Heart-Wrenching Zombie Drama

When a chemical weapon wipes out an entire population, a desperate woman searching for her husband joins a volunteer effort to bury the dead, all while a portion of the bodies reanimate. Starring Daisy Ridley and Brenton Thwaites, We Bury the Dead is a haunting and emotional depiction of loss amidst a zombie “outbreak”. A story that wholly subverts the expectations of the subgenre.

The world is shaken by the aftermath of a governmental disaster that caused a deadly cloud to cover Tasmania, wiping out every living being. Ava (Daisy Ridley) journeys to the quarantine zone to volunteer as part of the body retrieval unit, with a mission to find her husband, who was attending a conference.

Whispers swirl that some of the corpses have resurrected, though there’s no understanding of how. Although Ava knows the likelihood of her husband surviving is unlikely, she sets out with a fellow volunteer named Clay (Brenton Thwaites) in hopes of finding him in some form for closure.

We Bury the Dead is anything but your typical zombie film. Written and directed by Zak Hilditch, it’s a glimpse of what it would look like if the world just stopped. Haunting depictions of those last moments of life. Where a morning breakfast still waits, a shower runs to start the day, or a yoga session presents a minute of calm — all frozen in time.

There’s a sense of sadness yet peacefulness as those impacted by the disaster have died in an instant, some with loved ones by their side. But with some reanimating, what comfort does that provide to those left grieving them? They’re not the standard flesh-hungry undead, but shells of former life that the living try to make sense of.

And while most see mindless bodies, Ava feels they have retained some sense of self. An idea that offers her a glimmer of hope as she searches. You can sense immense heartache in Ridley’s performance, yet there’s also a sense of compassion she has that she carries. Something we understand more of as we learn how the disaster works, and also her relationship with her husband.

With such a touching story at its core, it was a pleasant surprise to see that the film does not hold back from delivering disturbing monsters. The makeup design of both the corpses and the ones that have risen is fantastic and gruesome. For the living dead, they feel both familiar in their appearance yet unique in their mannerisms. They’re unsettling. And it’s amplified by some horrifying sound design, especially as the dead have this tick where they grind their teeth. It’s as unnerving as the knife scene in last year’s Bring Her Back and will send chills down your spine.

Still, beyond the horror, there’s a deeply profound story of life and loss. Which Hilditch pulled from his personal experience of losing his mother to breast cancer. Looking for any sense of closure that he could. That feeling is so palpable in the film’s themes. And perhaps cathartic for those who realize no time, long or short, is truly enough time to find that closure.

While on the surface, We Bury the Dead is a somber film, there’s so much beauty to it, an unexpected takeaway that we don’t often see in this subgenre. It offers so much in its short 96 minutes, and then with its final 15 minutes, it changes your perception greatly. I enjoyed that it isn’t doom and gloom in the sense that the world is ending, there’s no fear of an infection spreading, or a zombie biting you. It’s something much more meaningful.