We Bury the Dead Movie Review

“We Bury the Dead” is a story of a small-scale apocalypse, which results in many deaths. But the real story is with the tremendous amount of grief and despair that is left behind. There is no way to try and bury those strong emotions.

This begins with a perfect wedding between Mitch Newman (played by Matt Whelan) and his new wife, Ava Newman (played by Daisy Ridley). Then several years later, Mitch goes on a business trip out of the States. It is a beautiful retreat on coast of Tasmania, the island just south of Australia.

But then the U.S. military accident happens in the ocean near the island. It is a catastrophic event that kills most of the residents of Tasmania. Ava is shocked in her grief and dismay. There is no way to know if Mitch was affected. She can only assume he is counted among the dead.

She volunteers for the humanitarian mission to clean up the island. There are sections of the island cordoned off. But in some areas, there are ‘Body Retrieval Units’ sent in to fetch the bodies. There will be mass graves set up, to give some little bit of dignity to the dead.

On these patrols to retrieve the dead, she is paired up with Clay (played by Brenton Thwaites). He is from Australia, and he has a very devil-may-care attitude. He and Ava spend many days going into buildings to collect the dead bodies. There are some instructions to the crews about bodies that ‘come back online’.

They have found that these victims of the military accident have had their brains fried. Due to an accidental EMP (electro-magnetic pulse), these people are dead — mostly. But a few of the bodies still have some brain activity, and some type of ‘unfinished business’.

Usually, the dead stay dead. But on occasion, they will get back up and shamble about as if there is some force that is driving them to do something. Should the ‘Body Retrieval Units’ find anything like this, they will alert the military escorts. They will rush in with guns to make sure the person will remain dead.

Ava convinces Clay that they should take a motorcycle and head down south on their own. Clay has heard the story from Ava about how Mitch was in that area. If they can get past the cordoned off area, they would be able to get to the resort on the coastline.

Clay never cares that much for rules, so he agrees to make a break for it with Ava. There is nothing that they find, other than beautiful scenery and abandoned towns. They have to stop to get gas at a small store. They are attacked by one of the dead. This is one ‘back online’, but it has a nasty attitude.

They are saved by a lone military officer, a man named Riley (played by Mark Coles Smith). The two are now going to be in deep trouble. But Clay flees on the cycle, and Ava is left there with Riley. He seems very strict and by the book. But he might have another idea for Ava.

Ava has no other way out, so she goes with Riley. He starts to tell his story about his pregnant wife and how she was here on the island. Riley has been deeply affected by her death, and he would like Ava to stay with him. Just for one night, and then he would take her over to the resort.

Soon Ava sees just how twisted Riley’s brain has become. His internal grief has been too much for him. He has a made a prison of his personal pain. Now, Ava has been sentenced to a lifetime of sorrow. Unless she is able to dig a way out and escape.

Ava is quick and clever, and she ‘retires’ her prison warden. But she is escaping into an unknown world of more traps and snares. She travels down a lonely road; sometime in a Jeep, and most times on foot. There are other encounters with other people ‘back online’. Ava, when trapped, can become a fierce enemy.

When she gets to the beautiful retreat on coast of Tasmania, she knows what she must find. She and Mitch have had a rough few years of marriage. If Mitch is there and if she can make him ‘come back online’ — she might be able to get closure.

But she also runs into Clay. He had fled from Riley earlier, and now he is sorry for leaving Ava behind. Ava has been through so much now that it does not matter to her. The ‘undead’ who still remain around the resort are no match to Ava and Clay.

The terrible military accident has caused so much pain and agony. There are so many unresolved questions in people’s lives, and now there will no way to work things out. They only way to deal with the grief is to work through it. And the only way to work through the grief is start to find new ways to live.

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“We Bury the Dead” is a story of personal pain and grief. But is also ‘zombie adjacent’. It does say so in so many words, but it brings out an idea of ‘unfinished business’ as a way to bring people back from the dead. This will allow for a few of the ‘dead’ to rise again.

To play a character like Ava, there needs to be an actor with an incredible range for all the emotional changes. Daisy Ridley does a masterful job with this role. She is able to convey the heart-wrenching pain, and the horror of facing the ‘undead’. Her way to make an emotional journey to find her missing husband feels like a real motive.

Brenton Thwaites is also a real interesting character (Clay). He is hiding his emotions, the same as Ava. But his free-wheeling ways are working right in line with Ava’s goal to ‘go rogue’ and get to the resort. Mark Coles Smith does a fine job with a role (Riley) that veers into the grief-stricken, turned insane.

The one other major ‘character’ is the surrounding beauty of the landscapes and ocean coastlines. There are quite a few shots that take advantage of the peaceful scenery, set against the violent shots within the cities on fire. That makes for quite a contrast.

“We Bury the Dead” takes great pains to make sure you know this is not a ‘zombie’ movie. It is ‘zombie adjacent’, but the focus here is on how it affects the living.