Official Trailer
Rating: 5.9/10 | Genre: Horror, Thriller | Runtime: 95 min
Starring: Daisy Ridley, Brenton Thwaites, Mark Coles Smith, Matt Whelan, Chloe Hurst
I went into We Bury the Dead expecting a solid zombie movie. What I got was something that couldn’t decide what it wanted to be, and honestly, that’s the biggest problem with this whole thing.
Daisy Ridley plays Ava, whose husband goes missing after some kind of military catastrophe. The setup is actually decent. There’s this disaster that leaves people dead, except they’re not staying dead. They’re hunting. They’re smart about it too, which is different from your typical shambling zombie movie. The military angle could have been interesting, but the movie never really commits to exploring what actually happened. It’s just background noise so we can get to the scares.
Here’s where it falls apart. The pacing is a mess. You get maybe twenty minutes of actual tension in a ninety-five minute movie. The rest feels like filler. Ava walks around looking scared. There’s some dialogue that’s supposed to build character but mostly just slows things down. Then suddenly there’s a jump scare, and then it’s back to waiting around.
Ridley does her best with what she’s given. She sells the desperation of looking for her husband. But the script doesn’t give her much to work with. Brenton Thwaites plays someone she meets along the way, and he’s fine, but their dynamic never feels earned. They just exist in scenes together.
The creatures themselves look decent when you actually see them. There’s one scene in particular where Ava realizes what she’s actually dealing with that genuinely got under my skin. That moment works because the movie actually holds back and lets the dread build instead of cutting to the next scene right away. If there had been more of that, this could have been something.
Mark Coles Smith and Matt Whelan show up in smaller roles and they’re fine. Nobody here is bad at their job. It’s just that nobody’s given anything interesting to do.
By the time the ending happens, I wasn’t invested enough to care. And that’s the real failure. A ninety-five minute horror movie should be able to hold your attention. This one loses you somewhere around the forty-five minute mark.
If you love zombie movies or creature features, you might find something here to like. But there are so many better options out there right now. Save your time and watch something that actually knows how to build tension.
Have you seen this one yet, or are you on the fence about checking it out?
Where to Watch
Stream on: Hulu, Disney Plus, Sky Go, Now TV Cinema, Paramount Plus, Paramount+ Amazon Channel, Paramount Plus Premium, Paramount Plus Basic with Ads, Claro tv+
Rent on: Amazon Video, Apple TV Store, Google Play Movies, YouTube, Fandango At Home, Fetch TV, maxdome Store, MagentaTV, Videoload, Freenet meinVOD
Buy on: Rakuten TV, Sky Store