Get ready to feel some things. Director Zak Hilditch’s new post-apocalyptic film, We Bury the Dead, is headed your way this January. And it’s a ride driven entirely by grief and guilt.
WARNING SPOILERS
From the jump, this movie feels dark. The premise is simple but devastating: a government weapons test goes horribly wrong, wiping out everyone on the island of Tasmania. The catch? Some of the dead come back as fast, zombie-like creatures that get more aggressive the longer they’re around.
Our primary focus is Ava (Daisy Ridley). She signs up with a volunteer corps tasked with recovering bodies and disposing of the dead. Her motivation is heart-wrenching: her husband was at a retreat on the island, and the last memory she has of him is a terrible fight about their strained marriage and their desire to have a child. Ava’s mission is pure emotional urgency—she needs to find him, or at least his body, to get some closure.
A Dark Road Trip
Early on, Ava teams up with Clay (Brenton Thwaites). Clay repeatedly refers to himself as a “bad guy” trying to clean up his act to earn the right to see his daughter again. Interestingly, despite his self-diagnosis, he comes across as surprisingly supportive and kind on their harrowing journey south.
The film is relentless in its darkness—it’s full of decomposing bodies, genuine despair, and characters whose intentions have been completely warped by loss.
The most electrifying part of the film comes when Ava and Clay encounter a troubled soldier, played by Mark Coles Smith (also fantastic in the recently released film Beast of War), and are separated. Once Ava and the soldier arrive at his isolated home, the movie shifts gears entirely. What unfolds is sheer, brutal psychological horror. The soldier makes a strange request of Ava: for her to put on his wife’s dress and dance with him. Then all hell breaks loose. Smith gives one hell of a performance as a man completely disturbed by his grief, and that entire sequence is so intense and unsettling that it easily deserved to be its own feature film. It’s the movie’s highest point.
Ridley
Daisy Ridley gives a nice, controlled performance as Ava, though she does feel a bit too reserved at times. Given the agony of searching for your lost love after a final fight, you might expect a bit more raw emotion, but she maintains a steady focus, which perhaps suits the character’s role.
Seriously, what?!
The film keeps its tense, dark energy going right up until Ava finally gets her closure. But then, as she and Clay hit the road, the story takes an utterly bizarre turn. They encounter the risen wife of the previously mentioned soldier, who, despite being dead for days before she rose, is somehow no longer pregnant. Suddenly, they hear a baby cry. And just like that, Ava gets the baby she’s always wanted. Really?! It feels a bit out of place and weird.
This choice absolutely pumped the brakes on the entire experience. While horror requires suspension of disbelief—we’re talking about fast zombies here, after all—this felt like too big a leap. How could a baby born from a body that was dead for days possibly be okay? The infant was even lying perfectly on what looked like an altar, adding a layer of supernatural convenience that undercut the film’s grounded sense of desperation. It was a wildly odd and frustrating choice for an ending that cheapened the movie’s heavy themes of grief and reality it had established so well.
Final Verdict: We Bury the Dead is a well-acted film that feels a bit cold and slow. And the ending is anticlimactic. The movie features one truly exceptional psychological horror scene led by Mark Coles Smith that I wish were longer. If you can forgive a bizarre and unearned ending, the journey itself may be worth watching. And the wait is almost over. We Bury the Dead hits theaters on January 2, 2026.