We Bury the Dead, from Australian filmmaker and Supa-Star alum Zak Hilditch, has been making waves at film festivals in Australia and abroad, including recent screenings at BIFF (Brisbane International Film Festival).

You may know Hilditch from his previous films, such as These Final Hours, or from his most recent Showcase Australia! Q&A at Supanova in Adelaide in 2024, discussing what inspired his vision of an Aussie zombie catastrophe.

The plot follows the aftermath of an ecological disaster that decimates most of the populace in Tasmania. The Australian military launches a search and clean-up operation on the island, with a task force consisting of volunteers to assist these efforts.

Like many others in this task force, American Ava Newman (Daisy Ridley) is on a personal mission for closure. On her rigorous journey to discover the fate of her husband, Mitch (Matt Whelan), she encounters the easy-going, fair dinkum Clay (Brenton Thwaites) and Riley (Mark Coles Smith), which deepens her perspective on grief and what it means to be alive.

Hilditch has a keen sense for what makes a zombie encounter psychologically terrifying; the ambiguous and unpredictable nature of the undead, paired with a hauntingly good sound design that understands sometimes less is more. The cinematography and execution of these encounters feel immersive, like playing a survival horror video game. No two zombie encounters are the same, so you’ll remain at the edge of your seat until the very end!

We Bury the Dead is a zombified road film through and through. In road films, the journey is more often important than the destination because characters have time to reflect, where detours and obstacles enrich their perspective, often for the better.

The journey must resonate with the audience to create a compelling emotional tension. For this to land perfectly, it must feel realistic and plausible. How is this achievable in a runtime of 94 minutes? By grounding the zombie outbreak.

For example, is a zombie outbreak any different to the adversity and misery caused by a pandemic? And are the undead really unlike the living? It’s all very grisly to explore for sure, but Hilditch mixes in some hope, humour and optimism for good measure to complement the realism. After all, the rain can only downpour so much before blue skies return; nothing lasts forever.

And speaking of realism, this film contains the most unapologetic true-blue Aussie social commentary about the zombie apocalypse ever! Eva is a stranger in a strange land, and this cliché amplifies the comedic aspects of this commentary immensely.

All the performances here are outstanding, but Thwaites is an absolute phenomenon as Clay, a real scene stealer. Let’s hope a We Bury the Dead spinoff film about Clay gets green-lit sometime in the future.

We Bury the Dead buries expectations by delivering a remarkable, earnest and sincere depiction of an Australian zombie outbreak. This character-driven thriller excels at being grounded, thought-provoking, and suspenseful, thanks to an unnerving execution that focuses on peeling back the psychological layers of what makes the concept of the undead naturally terrifying.

We Bury the Dead is in cinemas now!

Lead image by Nic Duncan