Review by Eric Hillis
Directed by: Zak Hilditch
Starring: Daisy Ridley, Mark Coles Smith, Brenton Thwaites, Matt Whelan
In movies like Miracle Mile, Cloverfield and The Sadness, the narrative is centred on a protagonist's desperate attempt to reunite with a lover amid an apocalyptic event. Writer/director Zak Hilditch's Aussie zombie thriller We Bury the Dead is an intriguing variation on this premise. At the start of the movie the apocalypse has already occurred, and the heroine knows that at best her husband is dead, at worst he's undead. But she needs to find him regardless. She needs closure.
The apocalyptic incident here is a disastrous US naval experiment in the South Pacific that sees all life on the island of Tasmania extinguished by an EMP weapon. The Australian military calls for volunteers to help round up and identify the half million human corpses that now litter the island. Among the bodies is that of Mitch (Matt Whelan), an American businessman who had the misfortune of attending a conference in Tasmania when disaster struck. His wife Ava (Daisy Ridley) joins the volunteers in the hopes of finding his body.
Rumours that some of the dead are reanimating as dead-eyed zombies are immediately confirmed. Ava is ordered to notify a soldier if she comes across any such undead people, who will be dispatched with a customary head shot. Clinging to the notion that Mitch might still be alive in some form, Ava becomes obsessed with the undead, staring into their eyes in search of any signs of life. Breaking away from her group, she makes her own way towards the resort where Mitch was last seen, unaware of what state she'll find him in.
Hilditch has devised a fresh and curious take on what is an overblown sub-genre. It's certainly more original than the recent 28 Years Later, which resembled little more than a slightly bigger budgeted episode of The Walking Dead. There's a melancholy atmosphere to We Bury the Dead that makes it stand out from most zombie movies. It's more concerned with the question of what constitutes life than with simply finding ways for its heroine to explode zombie heads.
At the same time, Hilditch does manufacture the requisite suspense sequences, which he shoots in engaging fashion. There's a great set-piece shot from above as Ava tries to escape the clutches of a zombie chasing her through a bus crammed with corpses, and some tense moments that see the undead quietly shuffling towards Ava from behind. As has become the biggest cliché of the zombie sub-genre, it's the humans rather than the zombies that you really have to look out for. In the movie's most unnerving scene, Ava is "aided" by a grieving soldier (Mark Coles Smith) with sinister intentions.
Post Star Wars, Ridley has developed into a fine actress. Her role here requires her to remain largely silent, partly due to Ava's awareness of the anger her American accent might prompt in the Aussies around her. Her big expressive eyes go a long way to selling Ava's paranoia regarding whom she might be able to trust, and right to the end there is hope in those same eyes.
The zombie movie is so played out at this point that it's practically impossible to make a new entry that feels fresh and unique. We Bury the Dead inevitably falls back on well established tropes, but it does so with a level of craft that distinguishes it from its many rivals. And in its ultimate focus on life rather than death, it's a rare zombie thriller that offers philosophical food for thought. This zombie movie has braaaiiiinnnnsssss.
We Bury the Dead is in US/CAN cinemas and on UK/ROI VOD from January 2nd.
