Daisy Ridley Digs Into Zombie Horror with We Bury the Dead
The undead will rise early in 2026. Daisy Ridley, best known for her star-making turn as Rey in the Star Wars sequel trilogy, is stepping into the world of apocalyptic terror with We Bury the Dead, the latest film from Australian writer and director Zak Hilditch. The movie will arrive in theaters on January 2, 2026, and promises a grim but emotional take on the zombie genre.
Ridley plays Ava, a woman shattered by the disappearance of her husband after a military experiment goes catastrophically wrong. Refusing to give up, she volunteers for a “body retrieval unit,” tasked with collecting and burying the dead left in the experiment’s wake. What begins as a tragic mission of closure quickly descends into horror when the corpses she is burying begin to show chilling signs of life. Her search for her husband turns into a harrowing fight for survival against forces that blur the line between grief, guilt, and reanimation.
Hilditch, who carved out his reputation with the apocalyptic drama These Final Hours and later won acclaim for his Stephen King adaptation 1922, has always gravitated toward stories of people facing extraordinary circumstances in collapsing worlds. In We Bury the Dead, he appears to be taking those instincts into even darker territory. Described as a tale that “reinvents the apocalyptic zombie genre,” the film blends survival horror with deeply personal drama, aiming to explore what happens when love and loss collide with terror and decay.
The project comes with plenty of star power. Alongside Ridley is Brenton Thwaites (Titans, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales), with supporting roles filled out by a cast that Vertical Entertainment believes will resonate strongly with both genre fans and mainstream audiences. Vertical, who will handle US distribution, is already building anticipation. Partner Peter Jarowey said, “With a great cast led by Daisy Ridley and Brenton Thwaites, Zak has re-energized the zombie genre with We Bury the Dead. Next year, North American audiences will be on the edge of their seats watching this post-apocalyptic thriller.”
The production itself was mounted in Australia, which has increasingly become a fertile ground for bold and ambitious genre filmmaking. From the stark landscapes of Mad Max to the cult hit Wyrmwood: Road of the Dead, Australian horror and apocalyptic cinema has a history of injecting fresh energy into well-worn genres. With We Bury the Dead, that tradition looks set to continue, marrying a bleak landscape with an emotionally fraught story of resilience and desperation.
It is worth noting that the zombie genre has been through countless evolutions over the decades. From George A. Romero’s groundbreaking Night of the Living Dead in 1968 to the fast-moving terrors of 28 Days Later and the pop-culture dominance of The Walking Dead, filmmakers have always found ways to reinterpret the undead. What makes We Bury the Dead intriguing is its promise to shift the focus back toward intimate, human-scale drama while still delivering the gory thrills audiences expect. The story is less about faceless hordes and more about one woman’s refusal to surrender in the face of unimaginable loss—even when that loss begins clawing its way back out of the ground.
Zak Hilditch’s previous work suggests he is uniquely positioned to pull this balance off. These Final Hours was lauded for combining a sweeping apocalyptic backdrop with a personal story of redemption, while 1922 was praised for its slow-burn horror steeped in grief and guilt. Both demonstrate Hilditch’s knack for using genre as a vehicle for human stories, which bodes well for We Bury the Dead.
For Daisy Ridley, the role is another striking pivot in her post-Star Wars career. After playing Rey across three blockbusters, she has moved toward smaller, more challenging projects, including the Sundance drama Sometimes I Think About Dying. Stepping into horror with We Bury the Dead allows her to explore an entirely different emotional register, one that demands both vulnerability and strength. If early buzz is correct, Ridley’s performance as Ava may be one of the most powerful of her career so far.
Audiences won’t have to wait long. The countdown is already on, with We Bury the Dead shambling into cinemas on January 2, 2026. For horror fans looking to kick off the new year with dread, despair, and a whole lot of decaying flesh, this one may prove to be the first must-see genre release of the year.
