Spoiler warning: We’re discussing Ava’s marriage, Riley’s extremely questionable housekeeping, what happens to Mitch, and that final baby reveal. If you haven’t watched We Bury the Dead, this is where you turn around.
Let me tell you something.
If half a million people suddenly drop dead and the government announces that some of the bodies have started moving again, I am not volunteering for cleanup duty.
I care about my community.
But I have limits.
Ava does not.
Written and directed by Zak Hilditch, We Bury the Dead stars Daisy Ridley as Ava, Brenton Thwaites as Clay, Mark Coles Smith as Riley, and Matt Whelan as Mitch. The film was completed in 2024 and screened at the Adelaide Film Festival that November, which is why you’ll often see it labeled a 2024 movie. Its wide U.S. theatrical release came later, on January 2, 2026. The theatrical cut is rated R and runs about 95 minutes.
Ava Just Wants to Find Her Husband
After an experimental American military disaster devastates Tasmania and kills hundreds of thousands of people, Ava travels there looking for her missing husband, Mitch.
She joins one of the civilian body-retrieval teams responsible for collecting the dead.
Already terrible.
Then some of the corpses start coming back online.
And these aren’t necessarily your standard sprint-across-the-parking-lot-and-bite-everybody zombies. Some simply move. Some appear confused. Others become increasingly aggressive. One especially disturbing feature is their constant teeth-grinding and gnashing.
That sound alone would’ve had me submitting my resignation.
The military claims the reanimated aren’t much of a threat, although soldiers are supposed to kill any corpse that wakes up.
Ava isn’t convinced.
She also can’t stop wondering whether Mitch might be among them.
So Naturally, Ava Leaves the Safe Area
Ava’s assigned nowhere near the part of Tasmania where Mitch disappeared.
She convinces fellow volunteer Clay to help her travel south anyway.
And because this is horror, the journey immediately becomes one long series of:
“Maybe we should not go in there.”
Followed by:
Going in there.
What makes We Bury the Dead different is that the zombies aren’t always treated like disposable monsters.
At times, they seem to retain pieces of whatever mattered to them before they died.
That’s where the movie gets genuinely creepy.
Because being chased by a zombie is scary.
Watching a corpse behave like it vaguely remembers being somebody’s father?
That’s a different kind of disturbing.
One of the movie’s strangest and best scenes involves an undead father digging a grave for the rest of his dead family.
He isn’t attacking Ava.
He’s trying to bury them.
Ava eventually helps him.
Now that is the zombie idea I wanted the movie to explore even more.
Then Riley Shows Up
Ava eventually encounters Riley, a soldier who initially appears helpful.
And anytime somebody in an apocalypse seems too helpful, start locating the exits.
Riley takes Ava to his home, where we discover that grief has done an entire remodeling job on this man’s sanity.
His pregnant wife, Katie, died during the disaster.
Except her body has reanimated.
Riley has kept her.
Inside the house.
And he wants Ava to put on Katie’s clothes and dance with him.
Sir.
We have officially left the grieving-widower portion of the evening and entered Dateline.
When Ava refuses to completely play along—particularly when it comes to removing her wedding ring—Riley becomes violent.
Ava eventually discovers something even worse: Riley has been keeping multiple undead restrained while studying their behavior, trying to figure out why certain dead people return and others don’t.
His theory is essentially that they may be driven by unfinished business.
And honestly?
He may be onto something.
He’s still crazy.
But he may be crazy with a research grant.
Ava ultimately kills Riley and escapes.
Before leaving, though, she sees that Katie has awakened.
Remember Katie.
We’re coming back to her.
Ava and Mitch’s Marriage Was Already Dead
As Ava continues searching for Mitch, flashbacks gradually reveal why finding him matters so much.
Their marriage had been falling apart.
They had struggled to have a child, and that pain created distance and resentment between them. Ava eventually had an affair, which Mitch discovered shortly before leaving for Tasmania.
Suddenly her search makes much more sense.
Ava isn’t just hoping her husband survived.
She’s hoping for another conversation.
An apology.
Maybe forgiveness.
Anything except having the last chapter of their marriage permanently frozen at its worst moment.
That’s really where We Bury the Dead works.
The zombies aren’t just dead people walking around.
They’re all the things nobody got to finish.
We Bury the Dead Ending Explained
Ava finally reaches the resort where Mitch had been staying.
He’s there.
But he never reanimated.
Mitch is simply dead.
And then Ava discovers another unpleasant surprise.
Mitch had also cheated on her before he died.
Well.
This marriage had more side relationships than surviving spouses.
Clay eventually reunites with Ava, and together they give Mitch a funeral.
They place his body in a motorboat, set it on fire and send it out across the water.
It’s the goodbye Ava came all that way to get.
Not the goodbye she imagined.
But finally, an ending.
And then the movie decides we’re not emotionally confused enough yet.
Yes, We Need to Discuss That Baby
On the journey back, Ava and Clay encounter Riley’s undead pregnant wife Katie again.
Katie has apparently given birth.
Nearby, they discover the newborn.
And the baby is…
alive.
Not undead.
Not infected-looking.
Just a healthy living baby.
Ava picks up the child and starts crying. That’s the final emotional note of the movie.
And yes, it’s extremely convenient.
Ava’s marriage was partly shattered by the pain of not being able to have a child, and now, after traveling through an island full of death, she ends the movie holding a newborn.
The symbolism did not knock.
It kicked the front door down.
Director Zak Hilditch has explained that some version of this hopeful ending was always part of the screenplay because, after everything Ava endures, he wanted the story to finally give her a small victory.
Whether it works will probably depend on how much symbolism you’re willing to accept before saying:
“Okay, movie. I get it.”
So What Are the Zombies Really Doing?
The movie never gives us a neat scientific rulebook.
And I actually like that.
Some undead become violent.
Some seem almost peaceful.
Others appear compelled to finish something from their former lives.
The father buries his family.
Katie gives birth.
It’s as though pieces of human purpose survive even when everything else is gone.
That makes them sadder than ordinary zombies.
They’re not necessarily returning because they want to eat you.
Some of them apparently just forgot to finish their errands.
That is somehow worse.
Horror Tea Verdict
We Bury the Dead isn’t the movie to watch if you want ninety minutes of zombie heads exploding.
It’s quiet.
Sad.
Occasionally very creepy.
And much more interested in grief than gore.
Daisy Ridley carries most of the movie, especially during the long stretches where Ava has very little dialogue and the story depends on us understanding what she’s feeling.
The Riley section is probably the most traditionally disturbing part of the movie, while the undead family’s grave scene is the part that stuck with me the most.
My biggest complaint is that the movie introduces a fascinating idea—that the undead may retain emotional purpose—but doesn’t dig into it nearly enough.
Then that ending comes along carrying a giant flashing SYMBOLISM sign.
Still, I’d rather watch a zombie movie try something strange than watch the 947th group of survivors argue inside an abandoned warehouse.
Rotten Tomatoes currently has We Bury the Dead at 87% from 117 critic reviews, while the verified audience score is a much lower 45%, so audiences are clearly more divided than critics on this one.
Horror Tea Rating: ☕☕☕½ out of 5
Come for the zombies.
Stay for the grief.
And if a strange man invites you home during the apocalypse and asks you to put on his dead wife’s clothes?
The zombies are no longer your biggest problem.