'We Bury the Dead' Brings a Personal Touch to the Zombie Genre

"We Bury the Dead," now playing in Valley theaters, offers a different kind of zombie movie—one rooted in personal loss rather than apocalyptic action.

Writer-director Zak Hilditch began the screenplay in 2019 after his mother's death left him with the task of packing up her house. "Going room to room and making these interesting discoveries, I thought there's a real interesting bit of catharsis to be having here, but also something worth exploring in a film," Hilditch said.

Daisy Ridley plays Ava, a woman searching for her husband in the aftermath of an experimental weapon deployment. The journey forces her character to confront both the disaster and unresolved choices in her marriage. Co-star Brenton Thwaites plays a survivor whose understated approach, he said, made the story "more interesting and more threatening" than a typical heroic arc would have.

The film blends horror with emotional weight—a story about saying goodbye wrapped in genre trappings.