We Bury the Dead (2024) Review
After a catastrophic military disaster, the dead don’t just rise – they hunt. The military insists they are harmless and slow-moving, offering hope to grieving families. But when Ava (Daisy Ridley – Star Wars: The Force Awakens) enters a quarantine zone searching for her missing husband, she uncovers the horrifying truth: the undead are growing more violent, more relentless, and more dangerous with every passing hour.
Written and directed by Zak Hilditch (These Final Hours), We Bury the Dead has an interesting premise which it does not fully explored. After the gripping first thirty minutes or so, as we watch Ava gets to grips with the dead, We Bury the Dead takes a stumble and never recovers unsure as to where to place its footing next. This plays out like it is setting up characters and situations for a franchise rather than providing us with a complete story arc within one movie.
There is a poignancy to the moments where Ava sees wedding photos or other paraphernalia that hints at the life lived by the deceased and such moments helps elevate We Bury the Dead by reminding us that zombies were once living, breathing humans that were loved. Around the film’s midway mark, when a young soldier asks Ava to wear his dead wife’s clothing and dance with him, the film takes a turn for the queasy and feels tonally out of sorts with the melancholy vibe that permeates through the film’s earlier parts.
Anyone approaching We Bury the Dead expecting zombie mayhem will be left wanting. This is a mediation on death and about losing loved ones and consequently the zombies take a back seat.