I’ve seen the zombie apocalypse a hundred times. Maybe a thousand. From the shambling hordes of Romero to the sprinting terrors of 28 Days Later, the genre can feel… done. Exhausted. A relic we’ve beaten into a pulp. Then a trailer comes along that makes you sit up straight. That makes you feel the grime under your fingernails and the cold dread in your spine.
The teaser for Zak Hilditch’s ‘We Bury The Dead’ is that trailer.
Vertical just dropped this first look, and I can assure you—you have everything to fear. This isn’t just another end-of-the-world scenario; it’s a gut punch wrapped in a eulogy. The film, which wowed audiences at the 2025 SXSW Film Festival and is set to screen next at the prestigious Sitges Film Festival, is scheduled for a chillingly perfect release in select US theaters on January 2nd, 2026. A stark, unsettling way to kick off the new year.
A Grieving Heart in a Horror Landscape
The setup is deceptively simple, and all the more powerful for it. After a catastrophic military experiment decimates Tasmania, the dead don’t just rise—they hunt. Daisy Ridley stars as Ava, a woman propelled by that most primal of drives: love, and the refusal to accept loss. She joins a “body retrieval unit,” not for glory or survival, but as a last, desperate hope of finding her missing husband among the carnage.
What she finds, as the official SXSW synopsis hints, is “far more terrifying.” The teaser is a masterclass in unease. It’s not just about the moments when the corpses twitch back to life—though those are handled with a brutal, awe-inducing sense of scale that the SXSW reviews praised. It’s about the silence before. The weight of a body bag. The way Ridley’s eyes scan a field of the dead, not with generic fear, but with a specific, heartbreaking need. Her search forces her to “confront the undead — and make peace with her own unfinished business.” That’s the key here. This is a zombie thriller as emotional exorcism.
Why Hilditch is the Right Man for the Job
This is where the behind-the-scenes flavor becomes critical. Director Zak Hilditch is no stranger to crafting stories about people trapped in impossible, decaying circumstances. His Netflix film ‘1922’ was a slow-burn descent into moral rot and guilt—a film that seeped into your bones. He understands that the true horror isn’t the monster, but what the monster makes you confront about yourself.
You can feel that same grim DNA in every frame of this teaser. The Tasmanian landscape isn’t just a backdrop; it’s a character—bleak, beautiful, and hostile. Someone on the crew must have had a thing for contrasting vast, natural beauty with intimate, human decay. The production design feels tactile, gritty. You can almost smell the damp earth and the cordite. This isn’t a soundstage apocalypse; it feels lived-in, and that makes it all the more credible.
A Refreshing Entry or a Familiar dirge?
The early word from SXSW called it a “refreshing new entry,” and the teaser justifies that claim. It’s refreshing because it pivots away from the global spectacle. This isn’t about saving the world; it’s about saving one soul, or at least laying it to rest. It shares more thematic DNA with a film like The Road than it does with World War Z. The focus is on grief, closure, and the horrific irony of having to kill again what you’ve only just begun to mourn.
The cast, including Brenton Thwaites and Matt Whelan, grounds the high-concept horror in a palpable reality. But this is Ridley’s show. She carries the trailer not with action-hero bravado, but with a raw, vulnerable determination that we’ve only seen glimpses of in her past work. She’s not a superhero. She’s a wife. And that might be the most terrifying role of all.
The Verdict: Mark Your Calendars
So, where does that leave us? With a teaser that does its job perfectly: it shows just enough to hook you and leaves you desperately wanting more. The confirmed rollout—SXSW 2025, Sitges, then a January 2026 theatrical release—paints the picture of a film with strong festival buzz, poised to become the first must-see horror event of 2026.
Horror fans—true horror fans who crave substance with their scares—this is your first major alert for next year. Do not miss it.
🧭 5 Things to Know About ‘We Bury The Dead’
- The Festival Pedigree: Premiering to superb reviews at SXSW 2025, its selection for Spain’s legendary Sitges Film Festival signals this is a genre film with serious artistic chops.
- The Emotional Core: This isn’t just a zombie movie; it’s a story about grief and “unfinished business,” with Daisy Ridley’s performance as the desperate Ava anchoring the horror.
- The Director’s Touch: Zak Hilditch of ‘1922’ fame brings his talent for slow-burn psychological dread to a high-concept thriller, promising more than just cheap jumpscares.
- The Release Plan: Circle January 2, 2026 on your calendar. Vertical will release the film in select US theaters, making for a chilling start to the new year.
- The Scale: Early reviews praise the film’s “awe-inducing sense of scale,” suggesting this indie-minded thriller has the cinematic scope of a much larger production.
What’s your take? Does this fresh approach to the zombie genre have you intrigued, or are you feeling undead fatigue? Let’s discuss over on Filmofilia’s horror hub – we’ve got a deep dive on the best festival horror from the last decade that you won’t want to miss.
