We Bury the Dead Review: My first theater watch of the new year ended up being Daisy Ridley’s We Bury the Dead, and it caught me slightly off guard in the best way. Yes, there are undead bodies. Yes, there’s decay, violence, and some genuinely unsettling imagery. But this isn’t a “run and scream” zombie movie. It’s a grief movie that just happens to be set in a world full of the dead.
The setup is refreshingly direct. Within the opening minute, the film lays out what happened: a catastrophic American military test wipes out almost all life in Tasmania. Humans and animals don’t explode or mutate; they simply shut down, like a biological EMP. Brain activity stops. Bodies drop. And then… some of them start waking up.
That concept alone is eerie, but the We Bury the Dead movie doesn’t milk it for cheap scares. Instead, it uses that idea to ask a much darker question: if someone wakes up after death, what does “mercy” even mean?
My Rating: 3.0/5
| Detail | Information |
|---|---|
| Movie Title | We Bury the Dead |
| Release Year | 2026 |
| Director | Zak Hilditch |
| Genre | Post-Apocalyptic Drama, Horror |
| Runtime | 1h 34m |
| Language | English |
| Country | Australia |
| Starring | Daisy Ridley, Brenton Thwaites, Mark Coles Smith, Matt Whelan |
Daisy Ridley Carries This We Bury the Dead Movie
Ridley plays Ava, a woman volunteering to help recover and identify bodies while secretly searching for her missing husband. What impressed me most was how restrained her performance was. She doesn’t overplay the grief. She lets it sit in her posture, her eyes, the way she hesitates before touching a body.
Some of her strongest moments happen without dialogue. You can feel the regret and the exhaustion weighing on her, especially during the quieter stretches where the camera just lingers. She isn’t written as a fearless hero, and thank god for that. She’s cautious, emotionally guarded, and driven more by necessity than bravery, which makes her far more believable.
Brenton Thwaites plays her recovery partner, and their relationship unfolds slowly and awkwardly, as it should. No forced romance. No instant bonding. Just two damaged people learning to trust each other because the job demands it.
This Is a Patient, Sometimes Heavy Film
At 94 minutes, We Bury the Dead isn’t long, but it does feel longer, and I don’t say that as a criticism. The We Bury the Dead movie takes its time. It wants you to sit with the weight of what’s happened. You watch bodies being catalogued, moved, and examined. You see how that kind of work wears people down, physically and mentally.
There’s world-building here, but it’s subtle. Flashbacks give us glimpses of Ava’s life before the disaster, and while one late-story detail felt oddly inconsistent, it didn’t undo what the film had already earned emotionally.
The zombies, if you even want to call them that, are handled brilliantly. These aren’t rage-fueled monsters. Many of them look confused, childlike, and deeply sad. When some of them do become aggressive later on, it feels tragic rather than exciting.
And when violence happens, the camera doesn’t flinch. It gets close. Blood seeps instead of splashes. It’s uncomfortable, not indulgent.
The Look and Feel of the World
Visually, this We Bury the Dead movie is stunning in a bleak way. The cinematography leans heavily into isolation. Wide, top-down shots make the characters look small and insignificant against the ruined landscape. Other shots just sit there, waiting for someone to enter the frame, letting silence do the work.
Some sequences genuinely reminded me of The Secret Life of Walter Mitty in their scale, while others, especially during the aftermath of the military disaster, felt almost mythic. Red skies. Thick smoke. A glowing horizon that feels apocalyptic without being flashy. At one point, it honestly looked like we were heading straight into Mordor.
The Predictable Twist—and Why It Still Works
There is a mid-film twist, and yes, you’ll probably see it coming. I did. That moment could have been smarter. But what surprised me is how emotionally effective it still was. The twist isn’t there to shock you, it’s there to deepen Ava’s journey and force her to confront something she’s been avoiding.
By the time the film reaches its ending, which some might call safe or even formulaic, it felt right to me. It fits the story. It honors the themes of acceptance, loss, and the quiet strength it takes to keep moving forward.
Is it perfect? Not even close. But there’s a real, aching beauty at its core.
Also Read: The Secret Agent Review: I Watched The Movie… and Now I Get Why Critics Are Obsessed
The Good & Bad In We Bury the Dead
| What Works | What Holds It Back |
|---|---|
| Daisy Ridley’s subtle, emotionally grounded performance | A predictable plot turn in the middle |
| A fresh, haunting take on the undead | Slow pacing that may test some viewers |
| Practical effects and makeup that feel disturbingly real | One odd flashback inconsistency late in the film |
| Strong cinematography that sells isolation and grief | Not the horror movie the trailer sells |
| Thoughtful handling of violence and morality | Ending may feel too safe for some |
Final Thoughts and Rating Of We Bury the Dead
We Bury the Dead isn’t a zombie movie in the traditional sense. It’s a meditation on grief, regret, and the strange limbo between holding on and letting go. The undead aren’t the real threat here; unresolved loss is.
Daisy Ridley is excellent, the world feels lived-in and heavy, and the practical effects ground everything in an unsettling realism. It’s quieter than expected, sadder than expected, and far more thoughtful than its January release slot would suggest.
Rating: 3.0/5 This easily could’ve been dumped and forgotten, but it deserves better than that. If you’re expecting jump scares and nonstop chaos, this isn’t your movie. But if you’re open to a slower, emotionally driven take on the undead genre, it’s absolutely worth your time.
Now I’m curious, what did you kick off the new year with at the movies? Any hidden gems I should check out next?
