"WE BURY THE DEAD" - A ZOMBIE SURVIVAL HORROR THRILLER MOVIE / A DAISEY RIDLEY MOVIE

We Bury the Dead is a 2024 zombie survival horror thriller film written and directed by Zak Hilditch. It stars Daisy Ridley, Mark Coles Smith, and Brenton Thwaites. The plot centers on a woman desperate to find her missing husband and follows her journey as she takes on grief and the undead in Tasmania.

We Bury the Dead had its world premiere in November at the 2024 Adelaide Film Festival. It had a theatrical release in North America on January 2, 2026, and was released in Australia and New Zealand on February 5, 2026.

The story begins with a silence so profound it feels heavy. It is the year 2026, but for the people of Tasmania, time stopped months ago. The world changed in a single, blinding flash when the United States military accidentally detonated an experimental weapon off the eastern coast of the island. It wasn't a nuclear bomb in the traditional sense, but something far more insidious—a pulse of energy that shattered the human mind without necessarily destroying the human body.

In an instant, the beautiful city of Hobart was gone, reduced to a hollow shell. Those who survived the initial blast were not lucky. Throughout the island, thousands of people were rendered brain dead. They didn't die immediately; their hearts kept beating, but their spirits were gone. They were "The Empty," a population of breathing statues.

Ava Newman, an American physiotherapist living in Australia, was not on the island when it happened. However, her husband, Mitch, was. He was on a business trip in the quiet coastal town of Woodbridge. For Ava, the news was a death sentence for her heart. She spent weeks in a state of catatonic grief until the rumors started. The rumors said that some of the "brain dead" were waking up. They weren't coming back to life as people; they were regaining motor functions—walking, moving, and in some cases, hunting.

Desperate for closure or a miracle, Ava volunteers for the Australian military's body retrieval task force. It is a grim job. The volunteers are tasked with finding the bodies of the fallen, tagging them, and disposing of them. If an "undead" wakes up during the process, the soldiers are there to put them down permanently. Ava is assigned to the northern part of the island, hundreds of miles away from Woodbridge. But she has a plan. She isn't there to bury the dead; she is there to find her husband.

The Escape and the Road North Ava is a woman driven by a singular, burning guilt. As she works in the cold, misty forests of Northern Tasmania, she is surrounded by death. She sees families frozen in time, sitting at dinner tables or slumped in cars. Her partner in the retrieval unit is Clay, a man who seems just as broken as she is. Clay is a volunteer who claims he wants to do something "good" for once in his life.

One afternoon, while searching a residential garage, they find an old but functional motorcycle. The military units are spread thin, and supervision is low. Ava looks at Clay, and without many words, a pact is formed. They are going to desert. They are going to drive across the scarred landscape of Tasmania to reach Woodbridge.

The journey is a nightmare of grey skies and empty roads. Tasmania, once a lush paradise, now feels like a tomb. They pass through towns where the only sound is the wind whistling through broken windows. While stopping for rest at an abandoned petrol station, the reality of the "undead" hits them. A body they thought was a corpse begins to twitch. Its eyes open—clouded, milky, and void of soul. It lunges at them with a primal, guttural cry.

Just as the creature is about to overcome them, a gunshot rings out. The undead drops. Standing there is Riley, a lone soldier with a haunted look in his eyes. He doesn't look like a hero; he looks like a man who has seen the end of the world and decided to stay there.

The House of Riley Riley is suspicious. He locks Ava in a cramped, filthy bathroom and takes Clay aside for questioning. Ava, exhausted by the road and the trauma, falls into a deep, feverish sleep. She dreams of Mitch—of their house, the smell of his coffee, and the way he used to look at her before everything went wrong.

When Riley finally wakes her, hours have passed. He tells her calmly that Clay ran away into the night. Ava is now alone with a stranger who claims to be a soldier but carries himself like a jailer. Riley offers to help her. He says he knows the way to Woodbridge. But first, he insists she comes to his home for a "proper meal."

Riley’s house is a shrine to a life that no longer exists. During dinner, the conversation is stiff and terrifying. Riley talks about his wife, Katie. He speaks of her in the present tense, even though it is clear she was a victim of the Hobart blast. He tells Ava that the weapon didn't just kill people; it "trapped" them.

The night takes a turn into the surreal. Riley produces a dress—one of Katie’s—and asks Ava to put it on. He wants to dance. He wants to pretend, just for a moment, that the world is normal. Ava, fearing for her life, complies. They dance in the dim light of the living room to the scratchy sound of an old record. Riley closes his eyes, whispering Katie's name. But then, he feels Ava's hand. He feels the wedding ring she still wears.

The illusion is shattered. Riley becomes violent, screaming that she isn't Katie, that she is "polluting" the memory. Ava manages to break away and runs through the house. She stumbles into the master bedroom and finds the true horror: Katie’s corpse is on the bed. She is undead, her skin a sickly grey, but she is heavily pregnant. Riley has built a shrine around her. He tells Ava, "He's alive. I felt him kick."

Ava escapes through a window and hides in a nearby shed. Inside, she finds more horror. Riley has been "collecting" the undead, chaining them up like lab rats. He has notebooks filled with observations. He believes the undead come back because of "unfinished business." To Riley, the undead are not monsters; they are souls waiting for a reason to leave.

Knowing Riley will never let her go, Ava is forced to act. In a desperate struggle in the mud outside the shed, Ava kills Riley. She takes his keys and his car, fleeing the property. As she pulls away, she sees the bedroom light flicker. Katie, the pregnant corpse, is standing at the window. She is awake.

The Grave Digger Ava continues her journey toward Woodbridge, but the car eventually runs out of fuel. She finds a camper van parked on the side of a coastal road. Outside the van lie the bodies of a family—a father, a mother, and two children. Ava, ever the physiotherapist, ever the "burier," drags the bodies away so she can sleep inside.

In the middle of the night, she is awoken by a rhythmic sound. Thud. Scrape. Thud. She looks out the window and sees the father. He has come back. But he isn't violent. He has picked up a rusted shovel and is methodically digging a large hole in the sandy earth. He isn't looking for food; he is digging a grave. Ava watches in awe as the undead man finishes the hole and gently lays the bodies of his wife and children inside.

He looks at Ava. There is no anger in his eyes, only a profound, heavy sadness—the "unfinished business" Riley spoke of. The man hands the shovel to Ava. He lies down next to his family and waits. Ava understands. She uses the shovel to end his suffering and then spends hours filling the grave, giving this nameless family the dignity the world denied them.

The Truth at Woodbridge As Ava nears Woodbridge, the film utilizes flashbacks to reveal the cracks in her marriage. She and Mitch had struggled to conceive. The stress had driven them apart. Ava confesses, through her memories, that she had an affair. Mitch had found out just days before his trip to Tasmania. Their last conversation was a bitter, unresolved scream. This is Ava’s "unfinished business." She needs to tell him she’s sorry.

She finally reaches the resort. It is a ghost town of luxury. She finds the room number from Mitch’s itinerary. Inside, she finds him. Mitch is there, but he hasn't "woken up." He is just a body. And he isn't alone. He is in bed with a coworker.

The realization hits Ava like a physical blow. The husband she crossed a continent of monsters to find, the man she felt so much guilt for betraying, had betrayed her too. Her "miracle" is a room full of stale air and infidelity.

Clay suddenly appears at the resort. He hadn't run away; he had been following her, staying in the shadows. He finds Ava sitting on the floor, broken. They bond over their shared failures. Clay admits his own family hates him, and he’s only here to prove he isn't the selfish man they think he is.

Together, they take Mitch’s body down to the docks. They place him in a small motorboat. Ava doesn't say she's sorry. She doesn't offer a prayer. She sets the boat on fire and pushes it out into the dark waters of the Tasman Sea. The fire is the only light for miles.

The Miracle in the Ruins Ava and Clay begin the long walk back north. They have no mission left, only the instinct to survive. On the road, they encounter a familiar figure. It is Katie, Riley’s wife. She is no longer pregnant. Her stomach is flat, and she is walking with a strange, purposeful gait. She doesn't attack them. She simply turns and walks away into the bush, leaving the sound of a faint, high-pitched cry behind her.

Ava and Clay follow the sound to a set of ancient stone ruins near the coast. There, lying on a bed of soft moss, is a baby.

The child is perfect. He is not grey. He is not cold. He is a living, breathing, healthy human being. In a land of the undead, a new life has been born from death. The "experimental weapon" had changed the parents, but life, in its stubbornness, had found a way to start over.

Ava picks up the infant. For the first time since the Hobart incident, the sun begins to break through the thick Tasmanian clouds. She holds the baby close to her chest, feeling its warmth and its heartbeat. She cries, not out of grief, but out of a sudden, overwhelming joy.

They bury the dead so the living can breathe. Ava Newman, once a woman defined by her past, looks toward the horizon. She has a reason to live again.