I’ve mostly given up on zombie movies. There have been so many over the past two decades that I find the whole concept kind of, well, brain dead at this point. Unless there’s a strong argument otherwise, I avoid them when I can. But We Bury the Dead set itself apart early by giving me something to care about beyond survival. After a military experiment called “the pulse” wipes out Tasmania, Ava Newman (Daisy Ridley, Chaos Walking) travels from Los Angeles to join a body retrieval unit, hoping to find her husband among the living. What she finds instead changes everything.

Writer-director Zak Hilditch (who made the spooky 1922 for Netflix) does something I haven’t seen in this genre for a while. His zombies aren’t mindless. They’ve returned from death confused and emotional, compelled to do terrible things without understanding why. That confusion, that frustration, makes them unsettling in a way shambling hordes can’t manage anymore. It turns the horror into something closer to grief made visible.

Ridley keeps refusing to be defined by one franchise, and I respect it. Between this, Cleaner, and the excellent Magpie, she’s carving out a space in a cinematic galaxy far far away from lightsabers. Here she brings a conviction that makes Ava’s desperate mission easy to invest in. Brenton Thwaites (Oculus) adds some texture as a bro-ish volunteer who joins her search, though I’m not convinced the tough-guy posture suits him as well as his softer moments. Mark Coles Smith, strong earlier this year in the dandy shark movie Beast of War, rounds out the leads as a soldier who might offer safety for the duo or something more dangerous.

Cinematographer Steve Annis captures striking shots of the landscape (actually Western Australia standing in for Tasmania), keeping dangers in shadow rather than full view. Sometimes a partial glimpse of a mangled face disturbs more than seeing the whole thing. The small scale works in the film’s favor, keeping the emotional story intimate. Composer Clark (just Clark) keeps your pulse in rhythm with the more intense passages while production designer Clayton Jauncey creates a few eerie locations for Ava to come face to face with the undead.

The scares land, mixing jump moments with slower-building dread. Hilditch doesn’t look away from the grief of survivors hearing news they didn’t want confirmed.  That alone is horrific enouch. Ava probably knows her mission is hopeless. She has her reasons for going anyway, and that makes her journey feel valuable to her and, by extension, to us. Don’t overthink the plot holes afterward; they aren’t wide enough to swallow the goodwill Hilditch earns. Besides, there’s one specific detail about these zombies (hint, it involves teeth) that will stick with you long after the logic questions fade.