A problem that many movies have today is that they are mis-marketed. For example, if you saw the trailer for We Bury the Dead, the recently released Australian horror movie, you would assume that it is not only much more action-packed than the film actually is, but also much more traditional in story structure. Which this movie is most assuredly not.
We begin in media res, with Ava (Daisy Ridley) flying to the Australian island of Tasmania to assist with a mass casualty event caused by US military experimentation. The Tasmanian capital of Hobart and much of the surrounding population has been killed by a type of EMP, and Ava and others are going to help with disposal and to potentially find their own missing loved ones who lived in or were visiting the area - Ava's husband having been on a retreat in the southern part of the island when the accident occurred.
Upon arrival, we hear rumors of some of the dead standing up, but not really alive. This inspires fear and hope among those with loved ones in the areas, even if the military has a strict Kill on Site order for any of those that 'wake up.' As the southern part of the island will be the last to be cleared, Ava gets the help of Clay (Brenton Thwaites) to sneak away from her group and try to get to the hotel her husband was staying at.
Now, the time between Ava arriving in Tasmania and her leaving to search for her husband is much longer than that summary would have you believe. And that is where the marketing for this movie fails it.
This section of the movie is so essential to the story and, if you are not prepared for a protracted world- and character-building section of the film, then it will drive you crazy as it makes you wait for the zombies. They are hinted at throughout, but the movie is in no rush to get to them. Instead, we get character work from Ridley and Thwaites and see the monotony of the clean-up of such an event.
When we do eventually get to the zombies, they are worth the wait. The sound they make is probably the best and the grossest sound for zombies I have come across, and I have seen far, far too many zombie films. I won't spoil the sound, but it made both myself and the person I was watching the movie with turn away from the screen - it's that effective.
In a way, it's almost a bummer when the road trip part of the film starts. We do see more zombies - with some fantastic makeup work - but it is at this point where the movie begins to fall into many of the cliches common to the genre. When a third character is introduced, acting suspicious, I don't think anyone in the theater was surprised at the direction that the film took. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but for something that had been decidedly different from most zombie films, seeing it devolve into the cliche is a bit disappointing.
However, the film still works surprisingly well. While much slower-paced than expected, it tells a good story in unexpected ways, even if it does leave a few big questions unanswered.
7 out of 10
