We Bury the Dead (2026)

Full review: https://movieswetextedabout.com/we-bury-the-dead-movie-review-daisy-ridley-delivers-a-masterclass-in-stoic-despair/

Rating: B-

"We Bury The Dead ends up being a positive experience, where technical excellence and a sweeping central performance try to compensate for a script that loses its breath and coherence in the home stretch. Although it doesn't manage to keep the promise of its unique premise until the end, falling into conventions it sought to avoid, Zak Hilditch's film offers enough to deserve attention, especially for the way it treats horror as an extension of human pain.

It's a visceral reminder that the true battle isn't against the monsters walking out there, but against the memories that refuse to let us go, proving that sometimes the only way to survive grief is to finally look it in the eye."

"We Bury The Dead" is truly compelling for the first half of the film but then loses its momentum.

As the film begins, it crosses a spectrum of emotions from chilling, horrific to ultimately tragic. What's really disturbing about this film is that it's wholly believable, too. It's so well done. We get scenes of apocalyptic destruction in Tasmania, Australia. We see people emotionally broken and seeking answers as a result of the death of loved ones. Many come to help in the massive cleanup operation in the hope they can say "goodbye". You see a woman crying at the side of her dead son, while Australian soldiers look on and awkwardly try to console her. It's heart-wrenching stuff. Worse still, some people come back from the dead as zombie-like things who grow ever more violent the longer they are left in a reanimated state.

Then we have the main character trying to find her husband, who was on a business trip to Tasmania. Her relationship with him, which is slowly revealed as the story unfolds, is complex, fraught and messy. In other words, wholly human. She is there to say goodbye not just to him but what her life with him represented.

Backing all of this is excellent cinematography with images of Tasmania's natural beauty juxtaposed with scenes of universal death and destruction. Tasmania has become a beautiful graveyard.

I was utterly drawn in by the first half of this film, which is why I was sorry to see it lose its impetus and coherence in the latter half. There are too many asides which don't add meaningfully to the story nor see it come to the heartfelt ending it deserves.

In summary, this could have been an Australian great. The first half is so memorable, but sadly it fades to insignificance in the latter part of the film, depriving it of its impact. That said, I still recommend "We Bury The Dead" for the absolute cinematic gold the first portion of this film represents.

Whoa, that's a nice motorcycle!

This delivers what it needs to. The side quest is a bit tacked on but functional. It's really not that good but it's not trying to be. But it delivers some solid zombie shit. Some weird human shit. I like how they play the relationship reveal for instance.

We Bury the Dead (2026) is a capable survival thriller that attempts to bring a more intimate, grounded perspective to the zombie subgenre. Set in the aftermath of a military accident in Tasmania, the film benefits from a strong central performance by Daisy Ridley, who effectively portrays the desperation and grief of a woman searching for her missing husband.

The movie’s most interesting hook is the nature of its "undead"—reanimated corpses that are slow and docile at first but become increasingly aggressive the longer they stay "online." This, combined with the unnerving sound design—specifically the chilling, glass-like grinding of their teeth—creates some genuinely atmospheric moments. Director Zak Hilditch also manages to maintain an impressive sense of scale despite the film's more modest production.

However, the film often feels like it's holding back. While the premise of a "body retrieval unit" is unique, the story eventually settles into familiar genre tropes that we've seen many times before. The pacing is somewhat sluggish for a 94-minute runtime, as the narrative leans heavily into marital drama and flashbacks that occasionally stall the momentum. It is a solid, well-made production that provides a decent watch for horror fans, but it doesn't quite do enough to stand out as a must-see masterpiece.

Not a zombie movie
I mean, yes, there are zombies in this movie, but this is not a movie about zombies. They are just a way to highlight and drive parts of the narrative. Which is interesting, but I was hoping for something a bit more tense and scary, whereas this was thoughtful and profoundly sad. It explores parts of the human condition which are important, but I would rather have watched a good zombie-movie.