Daisy Ridley’s latest movie We Bury the Dead, allowed her to take a new look at a popular genre. No stranger to genre films of all scales, Ridley was attracted to this project because it was a humanistic spin on the familiar zombie movie. The story takes place in a world reckoning with a disaster caused by an experimental weapon. Countless Australians were killed, and more disturbingly, some of them are returning to ‘life’ as zombies.

Ridley’s character, Ava Newman, lost her husband in the disaster and has volunteered to join a kind of body disposal team because she wants closure, and she hopes to find him, perhaps still alive. She is teamed up with the borderline nihilistic Clay (Brenton Thwaites) who agrees to help her go off their mission and find her husband Mitch.

TALKING WITH DAISY RIDLEY

In our exclusive interviews with Thwaites and Ridley, both expressed how their attraction to the film came from its unique approach, Ridley explaining, “For me, it’s how do we deal with grief. How do we deal with the decisions we make, and how far do you go in order to find an answer and closure?” Thwaites added, “I liked that for the first act it wasn’t just fear and run for your lives.”

The movie allows the mystery of what’s going on with these zombies to breathe while Ridley and Thwaites reveal character. Intensity ratchets up as their journey takes on a more personal nature. Zombie movies also have a rich history of addressing the issues and problems of their time. When asked about that, Ridley explained, “I think we all get desensitized very quickly, and we are also in a moment where people feel very separate… but we all have the capacity to love and lose, and I guess we could all give each other a little more grace in that.”

A CHAT WITH BRENTON THWAITES

Thwaites added that one of the harder parts of the film to shoot wasn’t anything involving the zombies or action. But rather a run-and-gun-style improvised sequence in which he and Ridley had to form a bond on camera through action rather than words.

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MORE ON WE BURY THE DEAD

Ultimately, though the film attempts to enter the Zombie territory with a unique perspective. It relies on most of the traditional tropes. You won’t find much here that is wildly outside the box. Though some of the character work and the seed of the idea certainly stand apart from the norms. The subtext allows more exploration of themes about loss and grief. As well as societal responses to massive tragedy, for audiences interested in observing things from those angles.

Vertical Entertainment‘s We Bury the Dead is now in select theaters.

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