We Bury the Dead Review

Most people don't have the time, money, or energy to watch many movies, so when you do get a chance to watch something, you want it to be worthwhile. That's why Rotten Tomatoes exists: to give a snapshot of whether a movie is worth your time. But does it always work? I'll be watching all of Rotten Tomatoes’ Certified Fresh movies from this Wikipedia list, and we'll see if these movies are really worth the hype.

Movie 7 of 2026:

We Bury the Dead, directed by Zak Hilditch, is a zombie movie starring Daisy Ridley as Ava, a woman searching for her husband after a catastrophic event hits Australia. I thought the premise was promising because the idea of this mass zombification being due to a nuclear bomb was really different. We're a bit oversaturated with zombie content, so anytime something can be unique about it, I'm satisfied.

Cool zombies were the most this movie had going for it for me. They were fast, they were scary, and they were definitely underutilized. I don't think this movie was trying to be some high-stress actiony thing, but I honestly think these zombies would have suited that more. The way that their mouths clicked and those glassy looks in their eyes really helped build suspense, especially because any dead body could wake up as one at any moment. That is prime for suspense, and there wasn't much here.

This was most definitely intended to be more of a character study about our lead, Ava. We know that she has traveled from the US to Australia in order to find her husband, but her internal motivation isn't even breadcrumbs throughout the movie; it's just kind of dumped at the end. I also found it really interesting that she was American and now moving through and interacting with Australians, because the horrific inciting incident was caused by the US. I think there could have been a lot of pathos explored through that, but they just kind of left it as a throwaway line from an unnamed character.

My biggest gripe was how the plot was essentially dismantled right in the middle of the movie. Ava is essentially sent on a side quest when a military man kidnaps her because he wants her to dress like his wife, who is a chained-up zombie in his house. This whole storyline added an element of danger that wasn't fun and didn't even match up with the overall theme of the rest of the film. It just lasted way too long and brought the story to a screeching halt. The best part of this section was definitely the barn scene, which did, admittedly, have the best shot in the entire movie.

Daisy Ridley does give a really great performance here. I would love to see her in a more fun horror movie, because I think that would really give her a chance to shine. While she did a great job, the character didn't have much dimension to her. I think that's more of an issue with the script, though. I thought the final twist about her relationship with her husband at the end didn't make much sense, and honestly, didn't feel necessary to me. I would just rather rewatch Ridley's movie Magpie because it was complex, interesting, and her performance was stellar.

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 88%

Is it worth the hype?:

I'm going to cautiously say yes, but some people might get a little bored. These zombies were legitimately cool and scary; I wish the movie’s energy had matched that. Daisy Ridley gives a great performance, but I think the characters could have been fleshed out more, given that this was going for a more dramatic vibe. Give it a shot if you want to see some interesting zombies.