Australian director Zack Hilditch’s Tasmania-set zombie disaster film, We Bury the Dead, is a poignant and thrilling exploration of grief and survival. After the accidental detonation of an experimental weapon wipes out all life in Tasmania, the Australian military begins an effort to retrieve and dispose of the bodies of the population and discovers that some of the dead are returning to life as zombies.
Hilditch’s film follows Ava, played by Daisy Ridley, an American woman who volunteers to join the retrieval mission as an excuse to locate the body of her husband, who had been in Tasmania on a business trip. She befriends Australian volunteer Clay and the two decide to desert the retrieval mission and embark on a roadtrip across zombie-infested Tasmania to find her husband’s body at his retreat in Woodbridge.
Ridley is excellent in the lead role, crafting an incredibly nuanced and human character who audiences will certainly resonate with. Brenton Thwaites portrays Clay and is similarly good as the charismatic bogan, bringing some lightness and humour into the piece without falling into a mode of performance that seems parodic or farcical.
Mark Coles Smith appears as Riley, a lone soldier that Ava and Clay encounter on their trip, and his performance is truly haunting. He is both terrifying and heartbreaking as a man who has been pushed to insanity by the weapons decimation of his entire family.
We Bury the Dead marks Hilditch’s return to Australian cinema after over a decade away making films in America, and his direction and screenplay are both incredibly strong. His film feels uniquely Australian, and is not imitative of American or British zombie narratives like World War Z or 28 Days Later. His film treats zombies as symbolic of unresolved emotion, a shallow existence caused by an inability to let go and move on, which is reflected in Ava’s journey to her husband and how it consumes her and makes her struggle to connect with those around her.
Overall, We Bury the Dead is a great film that offers something new to the zombie genre and tells a unique and exciting Australian story, and is sure to be a cinema trip that you won’t regret.
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