Ridley helms this tightly bound clash of disaster and zombie genres
I can’t help but admire Daisy Ridley’s recent role choices, starring in a variety of mid-tier dramas and sneaky-fun genre films: Sometimes I Think About Dying, Young Woman and the Sea, and Cleaner. In each film, Ridley is giving her all. Now she’s starring in We Bury the Dead, an Australian quasi-zombie drama by Zak Hilditch (1922). Tight on world-building scope but heavy on quiet intensity, We Bury the Dead is a solidly constructed thriller to kick off the new year.
We Bury the Dead’s plot setup is a unique approach to a zombie movie that I can’t recall seeing before. The story begins with news channels covering the aftermath of the United States accidentally detonating an experimental weapon just off Tasmania. A recently married physical therapist, Ava (Daisy Ridley), volunteers to assist with a body retrieval unit on the island in the hopes of finding her missing husband, Mitch (Matt Whelan). Ava is partnered for corpse removal work with a rugged ex-builder, Clay (Brenton Thwaites), who agrees to help Ava head south towards a coastal resort and Mitch’s last known location. Ava and others hear rumors of odd behavior from some of the blast victims, and army commanders overseeing cleanup operations confirm that some of the dead are “waking up” and acting strangely. Hilditch’s script does a good job keeping unnecessary information out of the story (sometimes too much, which we’ll get to), allowing a steady trickle of relevant context as Ava progresses through her journey.
The story’s emotional crutch are Ava’s flashbacks to memories with Mitch. These flashbacks allude to marital issues, but remain ambiguous until much later in the film. Because of the evasiveness of these flashbacks, they often slow down the present-day sequences and spoil any built tension. Speaking of tension, We Bury the Dead is deliberately slow and silent, punctuated by nauseating but effective sound design (if you don’t like the sound of teeth grinding, you’re gonna have a hard time sitting through this movie). Even within predictable sequences, where we know when someone or something is gonna emerge from the shadows, or where we aren’t fooled by the overt kindness of a side character, Hilditch creates an atmosphere of unnerving disquiet. Any sense of predictability or formulaic tricks (again, looking at you, flashbacks!) are easily overshadowed by Ridley’s stoic magnetism. She doesn’t have many lines, which is probably for the best considering her American accent careens off course a few times, but Ridley excels at using her small stature and subtle expressions to relay rapidly shifting emotionality.
We Bury the Dead seems (though unconfirmed) to be made on a modest budget, and Hilditch wisely keeps the grand scale, CGI-laden shots to a minimum while keeping the majority of the film focused and intimate. In this film, there are no herds of zombies or large action set pieces. Instead, the action is mostly observed from a distance, quickly-handled, and often one-on-one, and no less effective than it would’ve been on a much larger scale. Perhaps it’s even more effective. Despite all the winning choices Hilditch makes through the first two thirds of the film, the final third doesn’t quite land. Some sharp tonal shifts and unnecessary happenings occur in the final fifteen minutes, as if to slap a bow on some underlying themes that weren’t previously explored, and such is the result of keeping too much context secret. However, there’s no denying that Ridley’s committed performance, Hilditch’s handling of atmosphere, and the story’s unusual approach to the genre lift We Bury the Dead from the usual “dumpuary” horror.
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We Bury the Dead opens in theaters on Friday, January 2nd.
