SXSW 2025 Review:
"We Bury the Dead"
Release Date: Jan. 2, 2026 Rating: R Running Time: 94 minutes Like the Danny Boyle/Alex Garland 28 Days Later franchise, writer/director Zak Hilditch’s SXSW 2025 selection We Bury the Dead attempts to subvert the zombie subgenre without presenting his variation on the undead as technically dead. Instead, the accidental discharge of an U.S. experimental weapon off the coast of Australia’s Tasmania leaves a staggering 500,000 people braindead. A small minority of the victims come back “online,” to quote the film’s jargon: they wake up from their electromagnetic pulse-induced slumber, regain the use of their motor functions, and grind their teeth presumably out of frustration or fury. But what remains is a pale initiation of their prior self, so as with the zombies in George A. Romero’s Living Dead series, they possess some fragmented memories and engage in some retained daily and social rituals. The longer they say awake, the more agitated they come, leading to violent behavior. Daisy Ridley’s Ava Newman quickly discovers this when the American physical therapist volunteers to assist in the retrieval and the identification of dead bodies. Ava’s priority, though, is finding her husband Mitch (Matt Whelan), who was on a business trip to Tasmania at the time of the accident. With the aid of another volunteer, Clay (Titans’ Brenton Thwaites), Ava undertakes the long, arduous, and dangerous trek across Tasmania to lern for herself whether her husband is among the “online.” While Hilditch does not use the “online” to hold a mirror to society, or engage in the truism that man represents the true evil in a world filled with monsters, We Bury the Dead places an emphasis on the human cost of an avoidable disaster rather than on the inherent horror that lurks behind this door or down that alleyway. Hilditch, who previously directed the Stephen King adaptation 1922, rarely offers any encounters with the “online” that proves to be scary or filled with tension. Instead, he is intrigued by the damage caused by grief and real or perceived loss, as exemplified by Ava’s quest for answers and/or closure. This results in a highly intimate and personal trek across treacherous terrain, which must explain Ridley’s attraction to the role of Ava. Unfortunately, Ava is underwritten to the point that she is solely defined by her relationship to her husband, which hinders Ridley’s ability to bring any emotional or psychological resonance to her angry and anguished spouse. Of course, there are certain risks Ava must take to reach her destination, but she is not very good at spotting red flags. Also, the more we learn about Ava and Mitch through the multiple flashbacks we must endure, the more we wonder why Ava would travel to the remote Tasmania resort. Which negates the whole point of We Bury the Dead. If there is any complexity to the foolhardy Clay, which the energetic Thwaites more often than not hints at, Hilditch works against him by making him disappear for half the film and ultimately reducing him to nothing more than a traveling companion who can turn a tragedy into a party. Mark Coles Smith makes an immediate impact as a soldier who offers a glimpse of what lies ahead of Ava if she becomes too consumed by her pain and agony. Hilditch shows a little more interest in the “online,” even if he cannot really define what they are and what they can and do become. Some are simply filled with rage and violence; others hint at a humanity that can bubble to the surface at the most unexpected of times. This leads to a subplot involving one of the more mysterious “online” victims Ava encounters, which greatly informs the film’s ending and plays into the film’s theme that the “online” still have unfinished business on Earth. Regretfully, this also all-too conveniently fills a major hole in Ava’s life and ruining what should be a hopeful outcome. To this end, We Bury the Dead unfolds as nothing more than underwhelming extended episode of The Walking Dead that flashes back to an established character’s previously undisclosed and rather dull post-apocalyptic origins. Posted: Jan. 2, 2026. Web site: https://www.vert-ent.com/library/we-bury-the-dead |
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