Zombie flicks aren’t the hot movie genre they were 10-15 years ago. From the gargantuan success of The Walking Dead to the genre-parody fun in Zombieland, the lumbering undead goons were inescapable in the 2010s.
Zak Hilditch’s We Bury the Dead provides a fresh take on the genre, creating a down under horrorscape in a world where modernity develops alongside its potential to completely destroy itself. In the near-fictional world of the film, an accident with an experimental weapon kills the entire population of the Australian island Tasmania. The government hires civilians to assist with the massive task of cleanup and body retrieval. One small wrinkle — some of the dead bodies seem to be re-animating.
Ava Newman’s husband was at a conference in Tasmania during the accident. Her marriage was on the rocks when he went on this trip. She volunteers for the assignment of body retrieval in the hopes that she can locate her husband’s body and — perhaps he’ll be one of the dead who comes to life. After all, shouldn’t he have unfinished business to attend to.
Daisy Ridley is good as Ava, if a little blank. She doesn’t have the persona typically associated with celebrities and movie stars these days. That’s not a dig. Daniel Day-Lewis doesn’t have a persona. If she can branch out and show some genre versatility, Ridley might be able to distinguish herself as a very fine actor going forward. The direction of the film is appropriately restrained. Moments are scarier because of it. These zombies sometimes don’t even fight the humans who encounter them. They haunt the frame, rather than the people who share it with them.
The movie ultimately has less action and humor than a lot of zombie films. It’s context is sad. In that way, it has something in common with film’s about grief and loss. Everyone Ava encounters is hoping to find something positive in the tragedy that happens in Tasmania, even though there isn’t much hope to be found anywhere on an island containing half a million dead and undead bodies. It may not have as many jump scares as a traditional horror film, but the fact that it presents a believable level of realism makes the film scarier than anything that could be conveyed with traditional monster hijinks.
3 Stars.
Well stated….. nothing scarier than real life and the possibilities that as we continue to manipulate genes and push the boundaries of science and medicine that some of these horrors could become “ too real “…..