Daisy Ridley is officially trading her lightsaber for a bone-crunching axe, and honestly? We’re here for it. In the upcoming flick, We Bury the Dead, the Star Wars alum is swapping the Force for zombies.
Forget those slow, shuffling zombies that are easy to outrun. The monsters in this world are mean, fast, and incredibly brutal.
The Plot: Grief, Loss, and… Moving Corpses
Ridley stars as Ava Newman, a woman whose world falls apart after a military experiment goes awry, turning the world into a graveyard. Her husband is missing, and she’s desperate to find him—even if the odds are basically zero that he’s survived.
To get access to restricted areas, she joins a “body retrieval unit” (talk about a grim day job). But things go from depressing to terrifying when the “dead” bodies she’s supposed to be collecting start showing signs of life.
Why You Should Be Excited
If you like your horror with a side of “existential dread,” this is for you. We Bury the Dead is written and directed by Zak Hilditch, the guy behind the super-bleak Stephen King adaptation 1922 and the apocalyptic hit These Final Hours. He’s a master at making movies that are as emotional as they are scary.
The Cast:
Daisy Ridley stars as the axe-wielding Ava. Trenton Hwaites (Titans) also stars alongside Mark Coles Smith, who recently starred in Beast of War, which made our Top 10 Horror Films of 2025 list. Matt Whelan (Narcos) co-stars.
Release Info
The film already killed it (pun intended) at SXSW 2025 earlier this year, earning rave reviews from critics. You won’t have to wait much longer to see it for yourself—Vertical is unleashing it in theaters on Friday, January 2, 2026. It’s the perfect way to cure that New Year’s hangover!
In my review, I described it as “…relentless in its darkness—it’s full of decomposing bodies, genuine despair, and characters whose intentions have been completely warped by loss.” You can find the full review here.
