We Bury the Dead

In a genre often saturated with predictable tropes, 'We Bury the Dead' arrives as a chillingly effective gut-punch of a horror film. Director Zak Hilditch masterfully weaponizes a simple, terrifying premise: what if the official story about a zombie outbreak was a deliberate, deadly lie? The film follows Ava (Daisy Ridley), a woman who ventures into a government-controlled quarantine zone to find her missing soldier husband. What begins as a tense search-and-rescue mission rapidly descends into a desperate fight for survival as Ava discovers the reanimated aren't the slow, docile creatures the military claims. They are evolving—becoming faster, smarter, and unnervingly relentless. Hilditch builds dread with expert precision, using the stark, clinical quarantine setting to amplify feelings of isolation and paranoia. The 95-minute runtime is taut and relentless, with few moments of respite. Daisy Ridley delivers a powerhouse performance, grounding the supernatural horror in raw, believable desperation. Her Ava is not an action hero but an ordinary person pushed to extraordinary limits, and Ridley sells every ounce of fear and determination. The supporting cast, particularly Brenton Thwaites as a conflicted soldier, adds crucial layers to the film's central conspiracy. While the plot mechanics of the cover-up are familiar, the execution is superb, with sound design that will make your skin crawl and practical effects that are both grotesque and terrifyingly plausible. 'We Bury the Dead' succeeds not just as a scare-fest but as a sharp allegory for institutional distrust and the horrors buried by those in power.