Nerdly » ‘We Bury the Dead’ Review

30th Jan2026

‘We Bury the Dead’ Review

by Joel Harley

Stars: Daisy Ridley, Brenton Thwaites, Mark Coles Smith, Matt Whelan, Chloe Hurst, Kym Jackson, Dan Paris | Written and Directed by Zak Hilditch

In a post-Walking Dead world heaving with zombie apocalypse tales, Zak Hilditch’s We Bury the Dead posits a version of the subgenre in which the living dead are a relatively manageable issue.

In this case, the dead begin to rise after the United States military accidentally detonates an experimental weapon off the coast of Southern Australia. In a twist to how the situation usually unfolds, the dead aren’t much of a threat. Indeed, most are relatively docile, and the infection is reasonably well-contained.

Determined physiotherapist Ava (British Daisy Ridley, playing an American in Australia) arrives to help with the relief effort, where she’s teamed with fellow volunteer Clay (Titans star Brenton Thwaites). It soon becomes clear that Ava has an ulterior motive though, and Clay learns that she’s there to find her missing husband, who was in the area when the bomb dropped.

Later, picking up a motorbike while on clean-up duty, Clay agrees to accompany Ava on her long and perilous mission to Tasmania, where he believes her hubby is holed up. What the pair soon come to learn, however, is that the living are far more dangerous than the dead.

So far, so The Walking Dead, although sinister soldier Riley (Mark Coles Smith) is more mellow than your average post-apocalyptic psycho. In another horror film that’s more about grief and trauma than any external threat, Hilditch’s screenplay largely forgoes the scares in favour of moody scowling and a creepy slow dance between Ava and the obviously bonkers Riley.

We Bury the Dead is a slow-burn survival thriller first and foremost, more akin to The Dead or Maggie than World War Z. This works well for the first half, in which Ava is introduced to the daily grind in zombie-ridden Australia, and is more reminiscent of HBO’s Chernobyl than most zombie films.

Where it stumbles is when Ava and Clay do take to the road, where less fresh takes on the formula lurk. The unpredictability of the film’s unsettling-looking zombies keeps things tense, but the bursts of action sit ill at ease with the morose vibes, and the sluggish pace soon gets old. There’s nothing on Ava’s journey that’s particularly surprising, and Hilditch brings little to the table that’s not been done many times before.

Standing head and shoulders above the rest is Daisy Ridley, who delivers a phenomenally measured performance as Ava. Those hoping to see the former Star Wars frontwoman cut loose with an axe are (largely) in for disappointment, but what she does bring is altogether more powerful. If there’s a sense that Ridley is too good for the film she’s in (and poor Thwaites seems to struggle to keep up with her level of intensity), she does at least elevate the material. At the end of the day, it’s a Daisy Ridley Zombie Film (!) and for that we should be grateful… even if it doesn’t always work.

Between the evocatively shot setting, heady themes and its enrapturing lead performance, We Bury the Dead is an undeniably well-presented film, but ultimately doesn’t have the depth that it aspires to.