“Tragic images continue to emerge following the U.S. Military accidental deployment of an experimental weapon off the coast of Tasmania last week, which resulted in the decimation of Hubert and a total loss of life across the island … Just why news reporters can’t go in the disaster zone is still unknown. A clearer understanding of the tragedy has started to take shape. Stretching beyond the fireball at the center of the blast, an electromagnetic pulse resulted in the catastrophic neural failure of all living things on the island, causing their deaths.”
Look. It’s really hard to make an original zombie movie. Ever since George Romero took the creatures out of the control of Voodoo witchdoctors, there has been a pretty standardized approach to zombies. Of course, everybody thinks they’re putting an original spin on an old idea, but most are just regurgitating what’s come before with maybe a better makeup job or fancier explanation for how they came to be. It’s like putting lipstick on a pig. It’s still a pig, and that just makes me hungry. But I think maybe We Bury The Dead from the Outback of Australia from director/writer Zach Hilditch might have made one of the most original moves in the zombie game. They don’t really focus on zombies that much, and there are fewer zombies here than in any 20 minutes of a The Walking Dead episode, but what’s here is pretty potent.
“I’m sure you’ve all heard the rumors. And I can confirm they’re true. In rare circumstances, we’re observing unusual behavior from some of the deceased. Now we have no way of knowing when a victim may come back online, but take it from me. The lights are on; no one’s home. If you happen to come across a victim who’s showing signs of activity, the military will be there to take care of them, efficiently and with the dignity they deserve. The odd ones that do come back online, I assure you are docile, slow moving. You have nothing to fear. So just stay calm and let us do our jobs.”
Now for those of you who haven’t taken a class on bureaucracy-speak in monster movies, let me translate some of this for you. First of all, they had me at unusual behavior of the deceased. I was all in right there. Good job. When they say a victim is coming “online”, that’s coming back from the dead stuff right there. We have no way of knowing when a victim may come back “online”? That means no one has ever seen that go down and lived long enough to file a report. The military taking care of them with the dignity they deserve? That means they light them up until they look like hotdog chili. You have nothing to fear? Pick a good and pretty short prayer, because you’re toast. They are docile and move slow? This ain’t no George Romero movie, and these cats can run like the wind. Now you’re ready for the movie.
Ava is played by Star Wars alum Daisy Ridley. Her husband was in the blast zone. They didn’t exactly leave on great terms, and she desperately wants to see for herself what happened, and if, maybe, he came back. So she joins the volunteers who agree to go through the disaster zone looking for bodies so they can be buried and zombies which can be lit up. Now I don’t believe I’ve heard the word zombie anywhere in the film, but you can’t fool us. We’re talking zombies, all right. When they don’t allow her to go south to the resort he was staying at, she decides to sneak there with her team partner, who just found a sweet motorcycle in one of the homes they are going through. It’s not an easy trip, and along the way she gets caught by a wacked-out soldier who has his own ideas of these “victims”.
The Australian locations already add a kind of fresh element to the zombie genre. There are some beautiful beach and other exterior shots that don’t feel like every zombie movie I ever saw. There’s nothing special about the creature makeup. It’s pretty much on par with what everyone is doing right now. But they added an element I love. It starts with this young pink-haired zombie looking at herself in a mirror. She thrashing her teeth by side-swiping her jaw. That is one of the scariest and creepy elements of this whole thing. It continues throughout the film, and that’s scarier than anything I actually saw in this film. Whover came up with that idea should get a raise. The film even looks at zombie pregnancy and other fresh looks at an old genre. You won’t even find this near as much of a gore-fest that’s often used to cover up the film’s other deficiencies.
When Ava finally finds her husband Mitch (Whelan), it’s so anticlimactic that the story itself is pretty much relegated to a throwaway scene. So if there aren’t a ton of zombies, and the reunion is pretty boring,?why do I say this is a rather fun film to watch?
Daisy Ridley jumps out of her element in this film and plays a character as unlike Rey as you will find. She does it well, though subtly. The film becomes more about her journey than the destination, and it’s a compelling journey. At times I found myself not even thinking about the zombies. Instead what I got was a compelling journey for a character that was able to keep me engaged. I also love that Hilditch doesn’t have to display his creatures or his characters as so over-the-top. Antics don’t tell the story. The story tells the story, with Ridley offering up the emotional beats along the way from passion to being near catatonic. This is actually a good story that happens to be playing in the zombie genre. You’ll find it refreshing and constantly entertaining. “What a trip.”
