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<\/p>\nGlance at the synopsis for writer-director Zak Hilditch’s new film, We Bury the Dead, and you might be forgiven in this topsy-turvy world of ours for assuming it’s real, rather than fake, news.<\/p>\n
The United States navy accidentally deploys an experimental weapon while cruising past Tasmania, killing almost everyone on the Apple Isle. The Australian prime minister is apoplectic at their so-called ally.<\/p>\n
Fast facts about We Bury the Dead<\/p>\n
What: An equal parts terrifying and hilarious zombie epic set in a devastated Tasmania<\/p>\n
Directed by: Zak Hilditch<\/p>\n
Starring: Daisy Ridley, Brenton Thwaites, Mark Coles Smith<\/p>\n
When: In cinemas now<\/p>\n
Likely to make you feel: Like sitting in the quiet moments, even if it is the end of the world as we know it<\/p>\n
Spicily tapping into the festering malaise of our increasingly febrile days, Perth-based genre filmmaker Hilditch paints a wide-screen picture that’s part-disaster movie, part-horror; the brain-scrambled dead don’t stay down.<\/p>\n
It’s also a keenly felt portrait of loss.<\/p>\n
“We Bury the Dead started as an exploration of grief, following the death of my mother, dealing with the trauma of that and finding a way to move through it,” Hilditch says.<\/p>\n
“I never in a million years thought that, by the end of writing the screenplay, I would have infused it with zombies. But this notion of unfinished business wouldn’t leave me alone.”<\/p>\n
Star Wars with zombies<\/p>\n
Star Wars alumna Daisy Ridley plays Ava, an American physiotherapist who has flown into a now-heavily militarised Devonport, ostensibly to help with the clean-up.<\/p>\n
In actuality, she’s planning to escape the controlled zone and head to the island’s devastated south to discover if her husband, who was visiting on business, somehow miraculously survived. There’s unfinished business between them and she’ll walk through hell to sort it out.<\/p>\n
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Daisy Ridley, who plays Ava, is known for her role as Rey in the Star Wars sequel trilogy. (Supplied: Umbrella Entertainment)<\/p>\n
Ridley’s is a remarkably layered performance that brings great strength to bear, mixing the quivering vulnerability of grief with the adrenaline rush of determination and the pained shock of unimaginable horror.<\/p>\n
“This movie wouldn’t exist without an actress who could hold it in the quiet moments when the camera’s just observing her face and what she’s going through behind the eyes,” Hilditch says.<\/p>\n
“Daisy threw herself absolutely into every part of this role, invested in Ava’s journey right down to her costume and props, and knocked it out of the park, making it more grandiose and more intimate.”<\/p>\n
Drop the bomb<\/p>\n
Actually shot in Hilditch’s home state of Western Australia<\/a>, the action sees Ava reluctantly accept the aid of Titans star Brenton Thwaites’ motorbike-riding bogan, Clay. He’s easily swayed from the miserable business of mopping up possibly marauding bodies.<\/p>\n Ridley and co-star Brenton Thwaites, whose first acting role was in Australian soap Home and Away. (Supplied: Umbrella Entertainment)<\/p>\n Clay loves lobbing hilarious Aussie curses, C-bombs included. I wonder how American audiences responded to that, with the film enjoying its international premiere at SXSW after debuting at the Adelaide Film Festival.<\/p>\n “The Americans could not get enough of Brenton,” Hilditch says.<\/p>\n “We’re still so exotic, to them, and Clay’s the archetype for what they hope all Australians are like. We just delivered it to them, and they were howling.”<\/p>\n Ava and Clay’s breakout attempt is intercepted by Mystery Road: Origin<\/a> and Beast of War<\/a> star Mark Coles Smith’s copper, Riley.<\/p>\n “Mark is an absolute gun, and he’s never gotten to play a role quite like this before,” Hilditch says.<\/p>\n Mark Coles Smith has won two AACTA awards for his role as Jay Swan in ABC TV’s Mystery Road: Origin. (Supplied: Umbrella Entertainment)<\/p>\n The director spent four days with Smith and Ridley in a creepy old house, shooting the already nail-biting film’s tensest sequence.<\/p>\n “I was inspired by Ira Levin’s play, Veronica’s Room, with just how unexpected those roles are and how they control the situation,” Hilditch says.\u00a0<\/p>\n “Shooting that sequence was like making a whole different movie. One minute we’re in the elements, wrangling zombies, then we’re making a Hitchcockian thriller.”<\/p>\n Building with strong bones<\/p>\n Hilditch’s career thrives on this balancing act between the apocalyptic and the intimate.<\/p>\n “I’ve always had a love of ordinary people dealing with the extraordinary,” Hilditch says. “We Bury the Dead is that on a deeply personal, cathartic level, in a much more profound way than my previous work.”<\/p>\n There are echoes, here, of Hilditch’s big breakout, 2013’s These Final Hours.<\/p>\n It starred Wolf Creek actor Nathan Phillips as James, a bricklayer who bails on his girlfriend, Zoe (Jessica De Gouw), in favour of partying hard, when an asteroid strike and resulting firewall leaves Australians with 12 hours to live.<\/p>\n Hilditch’s previous work includes the horror films Rattlesnake (2019) and 1922 (2017). (Supplied: Umbrella Entertainment)<\/p>\n Hilditch also drew on a dash of Peter Bogdanovich’s Paper Moon, and its odd couple pairing of a con man and a grieving young girl.<\/p>\n James begrudgingly rescues Angourie Rice’s abandoned Rose from all sorts of reprobates, including a memorable cameo by a pre-Succession Sarah Snook as a chaotic, pill-popping partygoer.<\/p>\n “Shiv Roy, my goodness,” Hilditch says. “We gave her the script and asked her who she wanted to play, and she said, ‘The wicked witch at the party’.”<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/27d5ef9833f829b8a2680e2e5357c774.jpeg\")
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