We Bury the Dead (2026) is written & directed by Zak Hilditch. It stars Daisy Ridley, Brenton Thwaites, Mark Coles Smith, Matt Whelan, Chloe Hurst, Kym Jackson, and Dan Paris. The film follows Ava (Ridley), a woman who volunteers for the relief effort in Tasmania, Australia, after it’s decimated by the accidental detonation of an experimental military weapon. Those who were not killed by the detonation have now become seemingly docile zombies, giving Ava the foolish hope that her estranged husband, who was caught in the disaster, may still be alive. Against military orders, Ava convinces Clay (Twaites), a fellow relief effort volunteer, to sneak into the quarantined southern portion of the blast zone and travel to her hubby’s last known location. However, they soon find that although the infected are slowly becoming more aggressive, the greater threat is the survivors they left behind. 

In the lead roles, Daisy Ridley and Brenton Thwaites are serviceable, but the barebones script doesn’t give them much opportunity to show off their range. I appreciate the film’s efficient runtime, but not necessarily how it’s allocated. There’s far too much time spent showing these characters looking sad and broken as they stare blankly at the horizon. Considering how basic their characterizations are, one can’t help but feel that a lot of this time should’ve been spent establishing what makes them unique. Instead, all we really learn about these people is that they’re broken/sad, which is probably the one thing that’s immediately obvious about them from the start. At the very least, their motivations and behaviors are consistent, despite feeling undercooked. They’re not stupid, silly, or annoying–just a tad plain.

This falls into the category of zombie films where the infected population ultimately has little bearing on the plot. The zombie outbreak is mostly just a backdrop for the personal plight of its main character, which is a shame considering how underwritten she is. Sure, there’s still your fair share of zombie heads being smashed, but it could all be removed, and the experience would still be similar. A lot of the details about how this outbreak plays out feel interesting/fresh, but none of them ever lead to anything particularly interesting. In other words, the film has a lot of cool, original genre ideas but doesn’t quite know what to do with them.

 The script often sets up compelling possibilities, but then reverts to some of the genre’s more painfully overplayed tropes. For nearly its entire middle portion, the film repeats the all too familiar ‘humans are the true monsters’ cliche in the most predictable, surface-level way you can imagine. It just makes you wonder, “Why are you doing this to me?” 30 minutes of seeing zombie heads go BOOM would be more interesting any day of the week. I ultimately appreciate that the film is only about 90 minutes long, but I definitely lost focus about halfway through. 

Overall, this is a competently made zombie film that features some cool ideas but pushes them aside to instead focus on some of the genre’s most unoriginal themes. Nothing here is particularly bad–just disappointing, forgettable, and dull. If you’re a zombie enthusiast, check it out. For everyone else, this is a January release that’s easy to skip. C