SXSW 2025 Review: WE BURY THE DEAD, Daisy Ridley Leads This Genre Heavy Exploration of Grief

After a tragic accident leaves hundreds of thousands dead, a woman volunteers for clean up duty in an attempt to find her missing husband in Zak Hilditch’s meditative zombie thriller, We Bury the Dead.

After an accidental nuclear detonation by the US military turns all of Tasmania into a graveyard, the Australian government recruits volunteers to help clean up the mess. With over half a million corpses strewn across the island, it’s a big job, and Ava (Daisy Ridley) is up for it. Her husband was sent to the island for a work conference right before the bomb, and there are rumors that some of the dead are exhibiting signs of life long after their bodies have grown cold. With nothing but a bit of hope and determination, Ava joins the clean-up crew with the belief that she can find him and bring him home.

The director of emotional apocalypse drama, These Final Hours, Hilditch is no stranger to contemplative genre film. With We Bury the Dead, Hilditch examines the enduring pain that comes with unresolved grief when mourners stall out somewhere in the middle of the process toward healing. This is a film about the power acceptance, not unlike These Final Hours, and the ways in which people attempting to shield themselves from reality often manage to make things worse for themselves

A low key, almost secret undead horror film, We Bury the Dead utilizes zombies to amp up the tension and to force Ava to confront her actual mission. Assigned to a suburban town in Tasmania’s north, Ava endures the stench of rotting flesh in the hopes of finding her lost partner. She partners up with Clay (Brenton Thwaites), a cowboy type who seems to have no fear, as she schemes to travel south of the safe zone to the resort town where her husband would’ve perished. The pair traverse the desolate, lifeless landscape, fending off attacks from the recently deceased and a particularly unhinged military deserter named Riley (Mark Coles Smith).

The closer Ava gets to her goal, the more complex the reward becomes. Her tumultuous relationship with her husband is revealed through a series of unflattering flashbacks, complicating the audience’s relationship with their proxy. Is there a possible satisfying conclusion to her journey? Unclear.

We Bury the Dead is a mournful horror film, sporadically enlivened by attacks from the overzealous Riley and occasional appearances from bombing victims who aren’t quite as dead as they should be. Ridley’s impassioned performance as Ava is exceptional, though the rest of the film at times struggles to meet her level. The complexities of her character are evident on her face even as we are still unaware of the full extent of her regret and fear, an admirable quality that elevates the film and every performance in her sphere.

Hilditch is a filmmaker with a lot to say about the human condition and its fragility, both physical and emotional. With We Bury the Dead he explores the lengths to which people will go to absolve themselves of sin without actually dealing with it. While an overall engaging experience, the occasional languorous episode does lighten the tension a bit too much, making the film feel a little bit longer than it should. However, the film is bolstered by Ridley’s powerful lead performance, who brings a gravitas to a very gritty, dirty, and unexpectedly bloody film.