It wouldn’t be Halloween season without some good, old-fashioned flesh-eating zombies, and Australia’s got just the thing to fill that void. Vertical has just released the first trailer for We Bury the Dead, a new survival thriller starring Star Wars and Magpie alum Daisy Ridley as a woman desperately searching for her husband during a zombie apocalypse.
Written and directed by Zak Hilditch, We Bury the Dead stars Ridley alongside Brenton Thwaites, Mark Coles Smith, and Matt Whelan, with producers Kelvin Munro, Grant Sputore, Ross M. Dinerstein, Joshua Harris, and Mark Fasano. The film’s synopsis is as follows:
After a catastrophic military disaster, the dead don’t just rise – they hunt. The military insists they are harmless and slow-moving, offering hope to grieving families. But when Ava enters a quarantine zone searching for her missing husband, she uncovers the horrifying truth: the undead are growing more violent, more relentless, and more dangerous with every passing hour.
“Zak has created a unique, terrifying tale about the undead and how far the living will go to reunite with their loved ones,” Ridley said in a statement. “I was thrilled to be part of bringing this nightmare to life and I can’t wait to share the movie with the world.”
Shot in Western Australia in 2024, We Bury the Dead had its world premiere at this year’s South by Southwest Film Festival, and is currently nominated for Best Feature Film at this year’s Sitges Film Festival. Audiences in its home country (as well as New Zealand) will get to see the film as early as next week, while American audiences will have to wait until early next year.
“We Bury The Dead has been a true labor of love since day one from everyone involved,” Hilditch said, “and it’s been great seeing the responses to the film so far. I can’t wait for a wider audience to experience the film on the big screen across North America.”
We Bury the Dead hits American theaters on January 2, 2026. Check out the trailer below:
