Jonathan Sim
In the chaotic world of zombie cinema, We Bury the Dead dares to turn down the volume. Written and directed by Zak Hilditch (These Final Hours), the survival thriller trades the usual cacophony of screeching hordes for a chilling, meditative quiet. Set in the aftermath of a catastrophic military experiment in Tasmania, the film follows Ava Newman (Daisy Ridley), a desperate woman who joins a “body retrieval unit” to find her missing husband. But as she digs, the silence of the grave is broken—not just by the groans of the reanimating dead, but by the deafening weight of grief.
While the film delivers on the terrifying premise of corpses waking up mid-burial, it is the stillness of the performances that truly haunts the screen. For Ridley, whose character Ava endures a harrowing emotional gauntlet, the lack of dialogue was not a restriction, but a necessity.
“I think that’s just me,” Ridley tells Awards Radar when asked about embracing stillness amidst emotional chaos. “I remember actually having a conversation with Brenton [Thwaites] and he goes, ‘God, you just stand and do the thing.’ And he’s like, ‘I always felt like I need to do something.'”
For Ridley, that restraint was key to unlocking Ava’s internal world. “I think there’s so much she’s processing that often times, the stillness is how she’s actually able to have the room to process it all,” she explains. “But I think when there is a really rich backstory, when you’re working with amazing people, there’s a comfort to that in which you can explore dialogue or silence as a performance.”
Ridley stars alongside Brenton Thwaites (Titans, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales), who plays Clay—a fellow volunteer whose nonchalant exterior hides a darker motivation. Thwaites approached the role by building layers over the character’s hidden guilt.
“The thing that I liked creating was the colors on top of what’s his emotional life and his truth and his vulnerability,” Thwaites says. “What are the colors that he shows the world? With the tattoo and the cigarettes and the alcohol and that kind of nonchalant carefree attitude. A lot of the comedy comes from that kind of ‘carefree I’ll go anywhere’ kind of thing.”
However, Thwaites notes that this attitude is a facade. “I think deep down, he’s running from something, and he feels guilty for misbehaving and for bailing on his family,” he reveals. “It’s revealed at the end of the film that he’s there as a volunteer. You know he put his hand up to be there. Not for anything other than under the guise of something heroic. I think it was really him just running away.”
The film’s emotional climax, a scene where Ava’s search reaches a devastating conclusion, proved to be the most demanding day on set for Thwaites—not because of his own dialogue, but because of witnessing his co-star’s process.
“I think the most demanding day on set was being in the scene with Daisy when she discovers her husband,” Thwaites recalls. “At the end of the film, she does, and there’s a beat that is quite emotionally heightened for her… just feeling the rebound of that and the power of her performance and just watching her go through that…you’re in the room with this emotion. It doesn’t seem fake, you know, it seems real, and you do cop it, you do feel it.”
While We Bury the Dead is a heavy exploration of loss, Ridley is looking toward a diverse future. Fans are eager for her return to a galaxy far, far away as Rey Skywalker. When asked if the highly anticipated film has started shooting, Ridley confirms: “We’ve not started filming yet.”
Does she know if a script is ready? “I know some things,” she teases with a smile.
Beyond the Star Wars universe, Ridley recently captivated audiences in Young Woman and the Sea and Magpie. Regarding what comes next, she remains open to the alchemy of the industry.
“The real answer is I don’t know,” Ridley admits. “I read a lot, and I find myself drawn to lots of different things. I’ve never had an idea of what it is that I want to do next. So I don’t know. But I love reading. There have been a few amazing things I’ve read this year that hopefully will be happening.”
For Thwaites, who began his career on stage in Romeo and Juliet as a teenager, the journey to this film has been one of learning to trust his instincts. His advice to his younger self echoes the risks taken in We Bury the Dead.
“The message I would give to that younger man is just: go for it,” Thwaites says. “Don’t be afraid to make mistakes. Just keep making mistakes because that’s what it is. You just got to go for it. I mean, this [movie] was a risk for the guys to make, and they didn’t really stick to the tropes. They kind of forged their own path, and people really like that. So you got to kind of follow your gut.”
We Bury the Dead releases in theaters January 2, 2026.
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