At the library We Bury The Dead (2025)

In this dull little anti-zombie tale, we have a woman making her way across Tasmania to find her husband while some of the dead are up and walking around. Why are some of them walking around? Who the fuck knows. All we do know is that drama follows.

     It's kinda like Stephen King's The Cell. A big ole American bomb went off around the little island of the Devil and killed pretty much everybody. Some folks don't stay dead, though, so the country has called in civilians to gather up the bodies. Daisy Ridley is one of them, an American looking to find her husband who was on a business trip. Secrets abound as she makes her way out of the safe area and into the wild with a couple of dudes that are less than they appear.

     I'm not against the anti-zombie movie. I'm sure there is plenty of gold still to be mined from the walking dead, but I have yet to see but a sparkle. Zombies in general have gotten quite stale over the last forty years. There's only so much trauma and consumerism metaphors a man can stand before I start to wonder if maybe the walking dead are really the living people after all.

     That's a joke. People suck as a rule and in the apocalypse people suck pretty hard. Sure there's bands of resistance and families, but mostly it's a bunch of dead on their feet losers wandering around discovering the worst of humanity. 

     Yeah, it's the same here. Only Ms. Ridley has an American accent and stands in for Americans searching for the reason for their destructive acts or some such. She makes a friend with a dude bro and then goes with a soldier who has some pretty freaky shit going on at home. The most surprising thing is the humanity of both and the resiliency of life. 

     Our heroine carries bodies both small and big out into the sunlight. They fight a few walking bodies but soldiers take care of those until she's alone and then mostly runs. A few of the dead are just like the rest of us, walking around looking for nothing in particular but to keep on living. A few of those get a bullet to the head anyway cause that's what you do with the walking dead. Can't have them getting angry.

     If it sounds like I'm meandering, it's cause I'm talking about We Bury the Dead, a meandering movie. The cliche is strong and the world they create is pretty dumb. Cars that should work are not looked for or don't work. Jump scares happen in dreams. Those dreams are also wishes for better life and mix to create a memory of one woman's trauma… I made myself yawn.

     To say one thing, the zombies are pretty freaky. They grind their teeth and that made me annoyed. 

     To say another, I liked the look of the thing. It's a beautiful movie. There's big beautiful shots of the country and the landscape and people. Director Zak Hilditch made the adaptation of King's 1922 which was damn good. Explains the King feel of the thing. 

     I can't say don't watch it. Check it out if you're feeling art zombie.