We Found Closure Then Zom-baby Happened: We Bury the Dead

We’re running on fumes, so we caffeinate and pour a drink while we take a hard look at We Bury the Dead. We land on a 3/5, praise the acting and visuals, then dig into the grief metaphor that nearly sticks the landing before the ending sends us into a rant spiral. 
• our quick spoiler synopsis and the three-part review format 
• Daisy Ridley’s performance and why the cast sells the emotional beats 
• cinematography highlights including background staging and zombie reveals 
• soundtrack choices that sometimes fit and sometimes jar 
• plot gaps, vanishing characters, and why the ending matters most 
• the Golden Path read of the film as a metaphor for grief and closure 
• why the zombie baby and Viking funeral undercut the theme for us 
• what we would do in the dead zone, from tapping out to looting 
If you argue with us, then uh then you need to come on the program. 

Transcript

Sleep Deprived Welcome And Toasts

SPEAKER_03 0:00

Uh I uh I'm I'm running on fumes, so this is gonna be uh it's uh it's gonna be a sleep deprivation episode for me as well.

SPEAKER_00 0:09

Yeah, I've got coffee. Coffee is my drug for the day. Yeah. Well, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 0:16

Well, let's let's get into it then. So hey everybody, welcome to High and Dry Podcast. I'm your host, Ryan Bear North. With me as always, James Crosslin. Hello, James. What's happening?

SPEAKER_00 0:27

I am tired.

SPEAKER_03 0:29

As am I, as am I. I just came from a week in Colorado, and last night I came from. I'm sorry. I know there's like well, as we were leaving, I'm like, I I'm good. I'm good. We we did some of the we did hiking and stuff like that, but uh yeah, I'm good. The mountains aren't for you. I I mean just I've I've seen mountains and I've seen other mountains, they're just like the any other mountains. Yeah, so I I prefer some other mountains, you know. So, you know, you I you have your choice in mountain, and uh Colorado wasn't mine. So yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:07

Suck it, Rockies.

SPEAKER_03 1:10

We saw the sand dunes, though, those are kind of cool. But anyway, so welcome to Hindry Podcast, the only podcast keeping alive the fandom of Crowdman Dune and the flaming sword of fire.

SPEAKER_00 1:22

Oh shit. That oh, the guy who was on Crowdman Dune, he was he was one of those parody actors. He was from like what epic movie or something?

SPEAKER_03 1:33

Something like that, yeah. But we also have a very early Kevin Hart in that one.

SPEAKER_00 1:40

Really? That's not well. I mean, is that really very early? I was thinking of Sean McGuire, yeah. That's who I was thinking of. Well, Kevin Hart played like the failed sorcerer. He was in Meet the Spartans, that's right. That was it, yeah. Yep.

SPEAKER_03 1:57

Yeah, yeah, and that's about all he did. Yeah. Flaming Sword of Fire and Meet the Spartans. And uh bit part in Goodwill Hunting. Really? Yep. Yep. Okay. Huh. Well, and that ends our exploration of Crowdman Dune and the Flaming Sword of Fire. It is time now to get into what we're really gonna be talking about this week. Um, and that is the film We Bury the Dead. And we're gonna do this in a three-part method, guaranteed to get you results. First, we're gonna get you the definitive score out of five stars. Then we're gonna dive into the deeper meanings behind this film, and finally, we're gonna insert ourselves drugs or alcohol into the film. And what makes it so special, so unique, so fun is that we're gonna be doing a drunk high or in one way or the other. Inebriated. So uh James, what do you uh what do you got over there?

SPEAKER_00 2:51

I've got a healthy dose of stimulants uh because it is early evening and uh and I slept horribly last night because I watched this movie and I was just so mad at the end. That anger carried me over and I couldn't sleep. Just stared at the ceiling. Yeah, yeah. I was like, oh, so easy. Fix this movie. Uh yeah, I was so pissed off. Only got like five hours of sleep. So coffee. How about you?

SPEAKER_03 3:27

Okay, yeah, I'll be joining you uh with uh just my basic knob creek, 50 horsepower. You know, 24 bucks gets me where I need to be. Yeah, so well, let me line them up then. So this first toast, first hit, first shot. These go out to our most recent listeners with very impressive VPNs. These ones in Anti Hyongyan province. China? Yeah, China. Yeah, it's actually our uh well, let's see. No, we've had China before. Yeah, oh China loves us. Oh yeah. Definitely, and you know, America's making more friends over there, as we all saw. But I'll see.

SPEAKER_00 4:22

God, what a nightmare. Well, I guess it like they're all passed out anyway.

SPEAKER_03 4:27

Yeah, it just it eases you into it. So, all right, hi, welcome. There's only two.

SPEAKER_00 4:33

There's only two left.

SPEAKER_03 4:34

We're gonna set up your opium here. Here's a little bit of high and dry podcast to get you in the mood.

SPEAKER_00 4:40

It's only the really old school people who still do opium.

SPEAKER_03 4:45

I mean, I do a little from time to time. Um, so uh here is two those brand new VPNs and the uh the last two opium dens still playing high and dry podcasting. Cheers. Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_00 5:01

Delicious.

SPEAKER_03 5:02

Yes. I think tomorrow I'm actually gonna dry out a little bit until our next episode.

SPEAKER_02 5:12

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_03 5:13

Um just did all the drinking. Yeah, no, no water whatsoever. It's all alcohol. But I I did some heavy drinking over in Colorado, and I need to let the shakes stop a little bit.

SPEAKER_00 5:28

I mean, the altitude also has an effect on alcohol absorption. That's something that a lot of people don't realize once you get that high in altitude.

SPEAKER_03 5:38

Oh no, and I uh, you know, I in true high and dry host fashion, I took a couple shots before heading up the mountains and whatnot. You know, you know, I wanted to feel it. Just like a bat to the nose. Very nice, very nice. So um the second toast, this one goes out to uh well, I suppose uh getting drunk at high altitude. We actually made it to the top of one mountain, and these three uh these three were uh lighting up up there, and it took them a long time, like we lost them immediately. They were wheezing in coughing on the way down. Right. I don't know if they ever made it, so here's to them. I hope they did. Cheers. The sun was fast going down.

SPEAKER_00 6:25

Yeah, that seems to be a trend with you taking people up mountains. The sun starts going down, and you're like, ah shit.

SPEAKER_03 6:34

Well, you still remember our foray into the mountain where the lightning almost killed us.

SPEAKER_00 6:40

Yeah, I sure I remember that. That was terrifying. It was good. We had to hide under rocks as thunder boomed around us.

SPEAKER_03 6:50

I remember uh the one where we dove under the rock and we were literally hit by shrapnel after the lightning bolt. I don't remember that. I I remember the dust after one of the lightning hit. But what I don't remember is like the storm wasn't there, but then all of a sudden it was.

SPEAKER_00 7:12

Yeah, it was a really fast-moving storm, that's for sure. That's bad. We were up the mountain, and then we we were like look, we looked back and we're like, oh, that storm's still like several miles away. That's cool. And then uh and then we climbed for like another 15 to 20 minutes, then and then we started to hear thunder. Like, oh, that's not good. That's less than ideal. Then we had to run run down a mountain a mountain and shut these jagged fucking rocks everywhere.

SPEAKER_03 7:39

Well, I know it took us about three hours to get to the top and about 40 minutes to get down.

SPEAKER_00 7:45

Yeah, yeah, we really we we ran down the mountain. We were hauling ass. There was there was a point where we slid probably for like 40 feet, 40, 50 feet down the tin.

SPEAKER_03 7:57

Oh yeah. No, I'm I'm happy we got out of there. So here's to us getting off that mountain so one day we can discuss we bury the dead. Cheers. It all it all came down to this. Our uh Hooray! Our lives have culminated up until this point. So we can discuss. Yeah. Great.

SPEAKER_00 8:25

Did you want to do the synopsis or should I? You please. Okay You seem to have a special uh attachment to the film. I mean, I wouldn't I wouldn't say that, but I'll go ahead and uh I'll go ahead and give the synopsis.

We Bury The Dead Synopsis

SPEAKER_00 8:40

So our movie starts out with Daisy Ridley playing a uh playing a character who has been separated from her husband by a a disaster that occurred in T on the island of Tasmania. Uh supposedly the US launched a weapon that created a pulse that killed all life with a nervous system, and it killed all the life on Tasmania. And she she goes there as she goes there in the guise of being a help a body retrieval uh uh worker, and she does that for a little while, but her main goal is to get to where her husband was on a work retreat on the south part of the island, which is far out of the zone they're working in and is restricted. And she meets a couple of characters and and zombies along the way that that are that are helpful or hurtful in different measures. Uh eventually she makes it to the resort her husband was staying in. Find out that he was with another woman when he died.

SPEAKER_03 9:56

Well, but we also find out that she cheated on him.

SPEAKER_00 10:00

Yeah, she cheated on him before. And then he was they were fired.

SPEAKER_03 10:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 10:06

No, he went to the resort. It was a business trip, is what is what it was, ostensibly. Uh retreat. It was a retreat. Uh business retreat, yes. And that while he was there, he took advantage of the situation and had sex with someone else. Apparently she was pretty, according to the according to the character with the when she looked at the name badge. And then uh and then uh and then she and uh one of her previous companions haul his body out to the ocean and blow up a perfectly good boat, and then they find a zombie baby. Well, not a zombie baby, a baby born from a zombie. We have no idea if it's a zombie baby. And then it cuts to black, and that's the end of the movie. Yeah, yeah. No, that's pretty succinct. Someone tries to rape her in the middle there. We'll we'll we'll get to it. We'll get to it. We'll we'll talk about it.

SPEAKER_03 10:58

Well, so uh you want me to uh start with scores? Go ahead, yeah, sure, please. Okay. Um, so I uh you know I I the only thing I'd ever seen Daisy Ridley in was the new Star

Star Ratings Acting Score Plot

SPEAKER_03 11:18

Wars stuff. Uh-huh. And big fan, I know. I don't blame her. I I I blame I blame Disney.

SPEAKER_00 11:29

For being awesome, for making the for making the movie awesome.

SPEAKER_03 11:32

I think I think what's worse is just like we've all hit this point of apathy. Like, we don't care anymore. It's just so meh. Like I mean, I remember when it first started happening, we all had really strong opinions, but like now it's like, no. No, you you took something you took something special and just made it made us just feel total apathy. Right.

SPEAKER_00 12:02

Yes. That's what happened. That's I I couldn't care less about Star Wars nowadays. Like I used to be, I used to be, I used to think Star Wars was pretty cool, and now I really couldn't care any less. And it wasn't her shit, it definitely wasn't her fault. It was bad filmmaking. We've talked a little bit about the corporate um conveyor belt style filmmaking, uh, and how it's kind of destroyed artistic vision. Like have having a cohesive vision for film. Uh yeah, yeah. So not really.

SPEAKER_03 12:35

I mean, like we we we potentially have uh fucking Mandalorian and Grogu on the docket and I the hooray!

SPEAKER_01 12:44

I'm so fucking excited! I love that it's a little Yoda!

SPEAKER_03 12:48

I mean it's so it's such fucking trash. It's a little Yoda!

SPEAKER_01 12:52

How can you not be excited about the little Yoda? Well, but it's a but it's a little Yoda and Pedro Pascal.

SPEAKER_03 13:04

But uh yeah, so uh I do like Pedro Pascal, but he's been in a lot of he's you can watch any of his other things. Yeah, and and and honestly, like he's been in some trash too. Yeah, so I would say so so far as far as this went, though, we're the movie at hand here. I it was comp I I feel the actors were competent.

SPEAKER_00 13:27

Ah, yeah, for sure. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 13:29

Uh emotions were portrayed. And I in my opinion, I I think pretty well. I I think um I I think Daisy Ridley was better in this than she was in Star Wars. Oh yeah. I thought she was good. Yeah. I did too. So yeah, no, I I was uh yeah. Acting uh acting was solid. Um so are you gonna give it? I'm gonna give it a 3.5.

SPEAKER_00 13:57

That's great. That's a good score. I agree that the acting was good. Like my my hate, you know, I talked about being mad at this movie. I don't hate this movie, it just made me mad. And so and we'll and we'll get to it, but like I I did I'm not gonna have bad scores for this movie. I don't I don't want to.

SPEAKER_03 14:13

I feel like I feel like it's just it's a little bit a case of missed potential.

SPEAKER_00 14:17

Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_03 14:19

Yes. Um cinematography, uh I felt also was was very competent. Yeah. I uh I I think um you know the horror scenes where they brought everything close and personal, and then the the the overarching scenery when you just kind of look at the the the more the grand scale of the damage that's been done here. Um I I thought the first zombie we actually see, I thought he was very well done.

SPEAKER_00 14:53

Yeah, yeah, that first zombie was really good. And I got something to say about that when we get to Golden Path. Okay. We the oil, are you talking about the oil zombie? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, I think they call him Senor Oily in the film.

SPEAKER_03 15:11

No. Greaseman. That would have taken me out of it. We got Grease Man here. Greasy Joe. Yeah, oh Greasy Joe. Like, wow, you guys just aren't taking this seriously. So yeah, the cinematography uh was competent in a lot of I think in a lot of spots was well done. Um that there were a few instances where it was clear they were not on location. Like they did they did a shot of the hotel they were staying at, and I'm like, that's not real. Like, really? You guys you you guys couldn't have skimped together just to fucking stay the night at a hotel, really?

SPEAKER_00 15:57

Yeah, they couldn't get the right shot for the right, they couldn't get the actors up at the right time of day for that shot.

SPEAKER_03 16:02

Um, yeah, so for that uh cinematography, I'll give a 3.5. All right. Score. Score, I th I thought was well done with the exception of the occasional jarring sort of New Zealand punk, I guess that they do every like in these types of movies, the way where they're shooting at a And I know the specific I remember there was one scene where they were driving where they just got on the motorcycle and there was some New Zealand punk.

SPEAKER_00 16:33

But I actually like that. But I can I can understand how you wouldn't.

SPEAKER_03 16:36

Well, it uh it was very reminiscent of the movie we just did last week with uh Charlie Slayer.

SPEAKER_00 16:43

Apex.

SPEAKER_03 16:44

Yeah, where the music was just like, wait, what? Where'd you get that? Who whose kid is this? Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_00 16:51

So uh but other than that. Local music, Norwegian music. And that local even though that was Australia also. Very funny.

SPEAKER_03 17:00

Um, but other than that, yeah. So yeah, there's the occasional like jarring soundtrack that just felt like it didn't quite fit in. Uh so for that I'm gonna get the score three. Um the plot um it forgot some stuff along the way. Sure, tell me about it. Like um the guy she's with that drives her on the motorcycle.

SPEAKER_00 17:28

Literally, he's skedaddled. Skedaddled. Yeah. And then catches up later, and then there's no you think he's dead. Like, like I assumed he was dead.

SPEAKER_03 17:42

Well then he just he just walks in, and then they're just like, oh yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 17:49

And and and and and and he was like, How'd you get away from that that psycho? And she's like, You first, and then they cut away and they don't have him explain they don't do the explanation of how he got away.

SPEAKER_03 18:02

Well, yeah, just because you guys don't like explain a thing doesn't make it artistic. It it it just like what?

SPEAKER_00 18:09

I think that oh yeah, I oh go ahead, sorry. Well, well um uh what would you what were you gonna say? I was just gonna say, like, maybe this is one of those movies where where that could be explained where at that at that moment where she finds her dead husband who had his ring off, that she like kills herself, and then the the rest of the movie is just a fever dream where the companion comes back in and then and then they take it the body down to the bone, and then they find the the baby that the zombie gave birth to. All that is just a fever dream. Anything after that moment where she found her husband, she killed herself, and this is all just her brain's dying impulses creating it in that that last that last moment that stretches to eternity before you lose sentience. And uh this is just one of those cases. I find I find that that can explain a lot of movies, and so that's like a recurring thing in my head whenever I want whenever something takes a huge turn like this, you know. Yeah, well, uh that I hope that's not what they intended. Yeah, it's never what they intended, except for Final Fantasy VIII.

SPEAKER_03 19:20

Well, uh which I am a fan.

SPEAKER_00 19:24

But that's totally what happened in Final Fantasy VIII. After the first disc when he gets hit by that ice shard, all of it is just his brain dying. It's it's totally down to earth up until that point, and then things just start going more and more off the fucking rails.

SPEAKER_03 19:39

I mean, you've described every piece of uh anime ever. So every anime is just a fever dream of a dying character. Agreed. But uh yeah, the plot it it it had a it had a good idea. It was going it was going really well for a while. It was going really well for a while, and then it just sort of forgot where it was. Um fumbled at the line. Yeah, and then remembered where it was, but then didn't. So yeah, um yeah, I'm gonna give the plot a 2.5 for effort. Okay. Um and then uh rewatchability. Uh yeah, I'll I'll I'll probably give it another viewing. Um I I had had it on, and I know uh you know my girlfriend Callie, she was she wanted to catch it at some point, so I'll watch it again with her, and I won't be mad if someone puts it on. Like it definitely has some some decent scenes, you know, and uh definitely some of the uh zombie reveals were really well done. So agreed. It's it's better than some zombie movies I've seen, that's for damn sure.

SPEAKER_00 20:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 20:49

So rewatchability, I'm gonna give it a three.

SPEAKER_00 20:52

Alright. So we've hit the halfway point. Your score is a three overall. So let's see how how it goes after my take on it. Let's see how it stacks up. So the acting, I agree that the acting was pretty good. I thought Daisy Ridley did a really good job. Um, and I thought that the local New Zealand actors that they got were competent, or not New Zealand, Australian actors that they got were competent. And and I felt that the zombies were like the people did really competent zombies, especially with their facial expressions. Like, you know, we don't get we don't get zombies that talk and stuff, but we get zombies that use um you know body language and facial expressions, which is which is interesting. That's not a super common um uh zombie kind of like permutation or variation that we get. And I thought it was all pretty good. Uh so and and I'm not gonna say it wasn't like amazing, it was pretty good. Yeah. So I'm gonna give it a uh 3.5 also. I thought that the uh yeah, I thought there were there were there were definitely a few a few that brought it down. Uh, but no need to name them personally. Whatever. You'll see if you watch the movie. Uh cinematography. I thought the cinematography was uh I thought the cinematography was pretty good. They had they had uh a lot of good like motion shots, and like you could tell they took some time to get some like high angle shots, like what I was talking about with the boat at the end, they got like a really good high, like directly top-down shot of the cove while they were working and stuff, and with the zombies, they did a lot of like really good angle shots. And what's funny is that we we watched Undertone a few weeks ago, and we did a review on that, and like the whole thing about that movie was that like it's people in the foreground, and then like this huge house, like that this house in the background where anything could like pop up, and you're like waiting for shit to pop up and stuff, and it never did. And this movie did like a way better job of that. Like, there like things in the background happening. Yes, wait, Undertone was the podcast one. Yeah, Undertone was the podcast one.

SPEAKER_03 23:14

That's right. And it was like five minutes, I thought it was gonna be a good movie.

SPEAKER_00 23:18

Yeah, it's like the whole time it something could have happened in the background, there could have been things in the background, and they never fucking did it. That was like the whole the whole draw was that she had headphones on and she didn't know what was going on, and there were things in the and things could be happening around her and she wouldn't know, and but we would know. That's like the whole conceit. Uh, and they didn't do it. Uh, but this one did a way better job. There were lots of cool shit. There's lots of cool shit in the background. There was lots of cool instances of things where we could where we could see things, but they couldn't, and also things that got revealed to us and the characters at the same time, like when she hid in the shed and there there are the zombies chained up there. And I thought the props department did a really good job with like the blackboard with all the like uh notes on it and stuff. I thought the props department was really good. Yeah. Uh but anyway, yeah. Yeah, the teeth crunch there's a lot of crazy teeth crunching, and I think they did a good job with that too. Uh, I'm gonna give the cinematography a four. Ooh. Okay. Yeah. Score, the score I thought was pretty good. Um I enjoyed the Australian uh punk, and I enjoyed I enjoyed that they used a lot of like uh, you know, local music to their film industry and stuff, and uh I felt like the music, I didn't feel like the music detracted for me at all. And and the and that that's I remembered that specific punk scene, so I'm willing to give this a 3.5. Okay. Okay. For plot, you know, the the the plot was all the plot started alright, and then it kind of meandered a little bit, and then it felt like it didn't know how to conclude. It felt like it didn't, it didn't really have an idea on how to conclude, and it's frustrating because there's a metaphor, we'll get into it in the golden path, but like the plot is following a metaphor, and and the conclusion doesn't match the metaphor, and that like that always kills it for me. It always kills it for me when a movie doesn't end well. It's like the the the you could even have like a not great middle section and then have a fucking awesome ending, and I'm like, oh yeah, good movie, you know, to have like a really awesome ending. The ending is so important. The way you wrap a thing up is is like the impression that a story leaves. That it's like the opposite of when you meet a person. It's like first impressions are super important. Well, last impressions are super important for a movie and a story in general, and I feel like it really, really fumbled it. And so for me, um, I'm only going to give the uh plot a two. Okay, yeah. I was I was pretty disappointed with it. It was like kind of boilerplate zombie movie stuff, like 28 days later almost. Yeah, uh, and then and then uh I noticed the metaphor and I was like excited. I was like, oh, okay, I get I'm getting the metaphor now. And then it was like that. And I was like, okay, whatever. Uh now I'm mad. So that's what I was mad about. And then finally, rewatchability. Uh I'll probably watch this again, and I'll just turn it off right when she finds her husband and takes her right when she takes her ring off and puts it down on the on the nightstand. That's where I'll cut it off and be like, that's the end of the movie. That's actually all you need for the movie, and then that's it. And then nothing, nothing else is necessary. Uh but I I give it a three. Okay. Okay. Uh and so beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep calculating it comes up to it's actually a little over a three. So average is three. Okay. Fair.

SPEAKER_03 27:09

It's fair. Yeah. Like like every rating we have ever given ever. It is uh completely infallible. It is just it is how it is. It is how it is.

SPEAKER_00 27:23

It is what it is. And if you argue with us, then uh then you need to come on the program. You should you what you should have done is watch the movie and then come on here to decide with us. Yeah, but you otherwise yeah, you didn't, so it doesn't matter.

SPEAKER_03 27:37

Yeah, so you're wrong. Um, and I and I'm looking here, 59% of Google users liked it. Um it got an 88% on Rotten Tomatoes, a 5.6 on IMDb, and a 5 out of 10 at horror movies.com or wherever the fuck. That sounds about right. No one could really decide on this fucking thing.

SPEAKER_00 27:57

Well, Rotten Tomatoes goes higher higher because all you have anything over like a 50%. Like if you say it's if you have a positive, it counts as positive. And so it's like so it's like 88% of people said positive. Which which set which rings true to me because I bet a lot of people are right in the range of like right in range like 50 to 70 percent positive, you know?

SPEAKER_03 28:24

Well, it will so Rotten Tomatoes itself gave it an 88. Um the the viewer ratings put it at a 45.

SPEAKER_00 28:33

Oh, was it critic ratings that are 88? Yeah. Oh, critics. Well, that makes sense. That makes sense because the metaphor. It's it's uh if you if you have a movie that's mostly a metaphor and mostly like long, slow shots, audiences aren't really gonna like it that much. They're gonna want like high high octet. If you if it's a zombie movie, especially, they're gonna want like high octane shit. And that's not what this was. No, no, but uh was mostly metaphor.

SPEAKER_03 29:06

Yeah, and uh it's a three out of five. It's a three out of five. Um, everyone else is wrong, and as usual, we are correct. So it is time to dive into the golden path to unravel the deeper meanings behind this particular piece of film. But first, we have to uh have another toast. Alright.

Golden Path Grief And Closure

SPEAKER_03 29:30

So here is to our film, and here is to a respectable three out of five. Cheers to the metaphor.

SPEAKER_00 29:43

Yeah, yeah, I'm I'm excited to get into it. Well, please. Uh did you say did you do the second part intro? Oh yeah, you did, didn't you? Okay. Yes. Okay. So what I noticed, like going through this movie, you know, as they were introducing the the you know, the concept that they kept reiterating, like characters in this movie kept reiterating that she needs to be prepared for the worst, which is that prepared. Yeah, it's that her husband is like dead, or yeah, may may be worse that he's woken up, you know, that he's well, she wants him to be woken up. I mean, he's definitely gone, otherwise, he would have called, huh? Um but at the same time, waking up isn't always like having your loved one be reanimated. Even if you want that thing, it also may be worse, you know? Yes, you know, not yeah, so she needs to be prepared for that. And they keep saying it over and over and over, so it's not so it's pretty hammered in.

SPEAKER_03 30:46

Um I mean, she's the only one who doesn't really get it.

SPEAKER_00 30:49

Yeah, yeah. She just wants closure, you know, and that's what the movie's about, is like getting to the point of closure. It's so so my my take on this is that the movie's a metaphor for grief, for like the loss of a loved one.

SPEAKER_02 31:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 31:03

And may maybe not grief necessarily, but just just just death. Like the loss of a loved one, death.

SPEAKER_03 31:09

I think regret as well.

SPEAKER_00 31:11

Yeah, it's like all aspects of someone, someone you know dying, or someone you love dying. And the movie uh that's one, that's a thing that happens with her and then the her thing with death, but like the whole the whole movie is about dealing with death. And it comes in like several different stages where you know she you know it in the first in the first couple scenes we see how different characters named and unnamed are dealing with death. You know, you see several people um like aren't able to handle it, like several of the extra unnamed characters aren't able to handle it, like they nope out of the body retrieval and or throw up, and yeah, and then they quit. They're like, I can't do this, you have to find someone else. And she's kind of she kind of like dissociates uh for that first portion, which is kind of how people deal with loss, you know? Yes, dissociation is part of it. Um, and then they come across that first zombie, um, who uh who's Greasy John? Oily Johnson. Yeah, Greasy Joe. And he and the zombies like like there's that that scene is like fear and reticence and like recognition, and like the first step at like trying to face, you know, the things that come with death. It's a it's a removal of that desensitization that she had before. Now she's in vet it look it like she she goes from being desensitized to invested. And uh and then we move on uh you know the next scene, like she she goes, they they keep working together, her and the other guy, Riley or something, and they work together um to keep retrieving bodies, and they end up there's that there's that party where everyone died in the and and and one of the I don't know if she was a stripper, but she was definitely stripping. And uh she wakes up and and then there's like um then there's that moment where you start to get uh where it becomes sinister. It wasn't sinister in the first one where she was where there there was like a fearful, like a a timidness, like just dipping your toes and being like, oh, this is scary and and you know this is but you're not you're not but there wasn't there wasn't like fear, uh but the stripper one she seems to like reckon.

SPEAKER_03 33:43

That's when we started having uh teeth crunching. That was the first teeth crunching.

SPEAKER_00 33:48

Yes, that was his first teeth crunching, and she was looking in the mirror, like it was it was face, it was literally facing death. And and it was um and then there was like this anger and like this sinister nature of it, where where after you after you take that step in and start confronting death, you have this like emotional reaction, this like angry reaction, like why, why me, why this? Um uh and then moving on, we get um, you know, as the the the the rapist guy comes through and separates uh our two body retrieval people, and he has clearly not let go of his wife.

SPEAKER_03 34:35

He's he's yeah, he's the trophy figure of not letting go.

SPEAKER_00 34:39

Yes, yeah, he's the he's the king of not of not letting go. And he uh, you know, we find he has his wife bound in in their bedroom uh as a as a reanimated uh who is still pregnant, like the baby is still jest dating. Uh, and then we find he has a bunch of uh of the uh reanimated uh tied up in a barn and he's keeping track of them and he's trying to learn about um about how long it takes for them to get violent and like what exactly their mannerisms are. And he tries to he has he has Daisy Ridley dress up as his wife and uh and and he wants to he wants to have like uh yeah it's it's really clear like how sinister he is from the first from the get-go.

SPEAKER_03 35:28

From the very beginning.

SPEAKER_00 35:29

I thought he killed the guy and just dumped his body or whatever, you know. Yeah. When he said he escaped, uh, I would not have gone with him if I was Daisy Ridley. I would have tried to run off. I would have tried to run off too.

SPEAKER_03 35:42

Well, my thing is like I wonder if uh women are excited for a piece of media where they aren't constantly being raped.

SPEAKER_00 35:53

Well, I don't know. Maybe maybe maybe women would like to not see women being raped in every movie.

SPEAKER_03 36:03

In every fucking movie.

SPEAKER_00 36:04

I who knows. But uh but he tries, uh, he fails. But he but that's the thing that's like that's another reaction to death as you move through the process is the inability to let go and like diving deep into it and being obsessed by these feelings you have about the loved one you've lost. And then we move on from that character, and we we see uh you know, we get like a like a really crazy, like evil, like a really crazy violent zombie. Like the the the the tension is ramped up when we get one that's just like the emotions are just overflowing the after after that obsession one, and we get the uh we get that one that chases her through the bus. And then after she has a chance, I mean she she gets in an RV, she like pulls a family out of an RV and lays them down, and then and then wakes up in the night and leaves, which I thought I was like, what the fuck? She didn't even look out the window or whatever. No.

SPEAKER_03 37:09

She has the survival instincts of a boot.

SPEAKER_00 37:13

Yeah, for real. But but this uh this zombie guy, like she comes out and he's like digging a digging graves for his family, and she helps him dig the she helps him pull the bodies over and dig the graves for his family, and then he he kind of waits for her to kill him, which is like acceptance. Yes, right? It's like it's like the it's like the uh the you know one of the uh a stage of of dealing with the loss of a loved one is acceptance. Uh the acceptance of death. And and so she goes through that. And then finally she gets to she gets to the resort.

SPEAKER_03 37:55

Yeah and the the most common aspect of any grievance process is when you realize your loved one is cheating on you.

SPEAKER_00 38:04

Right, right, right. It had been the whole time. There is a thing about this, so I really liked this scene going up to the door. There was a do not disturb sign. And this this like keyed me in because I mean, like, I I honed into that. I was like, oh, that's gonna be that's like meaningful. Because when you're like dealing with loss of a loved one, you it she because she hit acceptance, right? Yeah, she hit the acceptance point, and then she stirred, she stirred, yes, she she had she stirred up memory, she went past the do not disturb portion of acceptance and kind of backslid and had emotion and and and she uh and she had played showed up again and it hurt her, you know, it hurt her to go through this emotion again and re-confront, even though we'd had the scene of acceptance, which is a thing that happens when you deal with the loss of a loved one. Yes. So all of that I thought was really good. And then and then and then and then things happened that made no sense, like uh taking the body down to the boat and doing a vi and and blowing up the boat instead of instead of taking the boat, or uh that doesn't make any sense.

SPEAKER_03 39:25

No, why Viking funeral and like they they they they backtracked to her desire to want a child in the beginning and then giving her a zombie baby like that. There you go.

SPEAKER_00 39:37

Yeah, yeah. I I liked the concept of the of the zombie mom have having a baby. I wish that they had fleshed it out so that it meant something. It didn't I I can't detect what it means, you know.

SPEAKER_03 39:52

It was just kind of thrown in there on the top. Like, I mean, I appreciate the need to try and wrap up every plot line because we've been dealing with that a lot in movies where they they bring something up and then don't fucking finish it, but at the same time, like it wasn't like we didn't need it.

SPEAKER_00 40:11

I expected Zombaby early. Like that's what I said. I was like, there's gonna be a zombie because there was like a stroller in the sheet in the street with no baby in it, and I was like, oh, zombie's gonna, we're gonna get a zombie, and then there's like oh, there's like a crib in one of the houses they were clearing out. I was like, oh, there's gonna be a fucking baby. But I thought we got to the end of the movie, and I was like, maybe they're just leaving that. Like, you know, who who knows what would happen, uh, which I would have preferred actually. I would have preferred that to what actually did happen because we got no explanation of why or what.

SPEAKER_03 40:43

Like, do all zombie people like I don't want to raise a child?

SPEAKER_00 40:47

It like doesn't fuck. I mean, the the assumption is that like, okay, so what I got from that scene where like the mom is in the center of the road just standing there and she's she's doing her zombie freak out thing, and they stop and she ends up walking away from them because sh because the mom knows that she can't give the baby what it needs. And so she's leaving it for the hu for the living people to take. But also why what what I don't understand? We never really went over like it does the this idea, whatever this idea is, doesn't really make sense to me and how it is cohesive with the metaphor of the movie.

SPEAKER_03 41:30

Well, how do we go from oily Joe, angry stripper, and then all of a sudden, fully cognizant mother who knows that she could no longer raise this human child and must give it to the woman who understands her pain.

SPEAKER_00 41:46

Well, we we did have dad who buried his family before. Yeah, we did have so we know so we know that there's something. Some people do something and have some cognizance or whatever, but we really jumped like we skipped like so many steps of explanation and so many plan.

SPEAKER_03 42:07

I don't I so she's single now, she just ditched her kid. Uh what comes next?

SPEAKER_00 42:11

How did a baby gestate in a dead body? How it they don't have a working circulatory system. How are any of them breathing? They're not creating new red blood. I wouldn't be so upset if this was just because like some movies do like a virus, right? Yeah, some movies do a virus, and with a and and the virus doesn't kill them. What it does is it like changes the way their brain works, and they're still living beings, and so you can do like they love doing it's like a version of rabies, yeah. Yeah, which 28 days later did, yeah, okay. That that I could see how you have a baby, but this makes no fucking sense. It didn't make sense how much blood was coming out of these zombies and shit. Like they they have been dead. They have been fucking dead. You need to create you need living marrow to create blood cells, and you need a working circular circulatory system to pump those blood cells around, and you and you need working lungs to like draw in air and and oxygenate those blood cells. Don't give me like a scientific explanation for a thing and then and then fucking fail fucking round one biology, like biology 101.

SPEAKER_03 43:32

Well, no, I like if if you're gonna not explain stuff, cool, but you can't start showing us a fucking PowerPoint about how their system shut down and and then just forget how it all works. And I feel like I feel like that is such a common mistake right now that it's just like eh, movie magic. Like, no, fuck you. All right, it is 2026. You Guys, need to be on your fucking game. At least have like if you guys are going to do something about biology, have a biologist at the table.

SPEAKER_00 44:08

Yeah, for real. Have a biologist there or make it all magic. Make it all unexplainable. Don't try to explain it at all. If you don't explain it at all, then nobody is poking fucking holes in it. Just say you don't understand. Say we have no fucking idea.

SPEAKER_03 44:24

We don't know why we have no idea why they're getting up.

SPEAKER_00 44:26

If you say no fucking idea, then guess what? I wouldn't have anything to say about zombie baby. I would I would be like, well, maybe, maybe, maybe this is how it works, you know, because I don't know. But now I can like definitively say, no, you guys don't know simple fucking biology. Like this is something, this is something that people learn really early. Like middle schoolers could tell you about how red blood cells get oxygen. Like that's early shit.

SPEAKER_03 44:56

I'm like, wait a minute, this doesn't work. And yeah. Shut up. Shut up, dumbass.

SPEAKER_00 45:05

Yeah, so the metaphor, like the metaphor ended for me when she put the ring down on the nightstand and was like, okay, this is closure. Yes. Uh, and that's right in the movie.

SPEAKER_03 45:19

Yeah, Clay shows up and like, yo, you want to party? Uh Clay's husband in a boat.

SPEAKER_00 45:26

I'm fine with Clay already being there. I'm fine with Clay already being there. I'm fine with I'm fine with her um bashing that zombie's head in again in the pool area after they got drunk. And then she and then she goes back and she's like, ring down. Like, I, you know, I um I got closure. Yeah, no.

SPEAKER_03 45:43

We yeah, we didn't need zombie b.

SPEAKER_00 45:45

We didn't need zombie, we didn't need Viking funeral.

SPEAKER_03 45:48

No, we didn't need any of it. But that was he always wanted a Viking funeral.

SPEAKER_00 45:56

But I you know, and all all that that metaphor that I talked about relates back to the title, We bury the dead. And I thought that that was very neat, you know, the idea that we bury these feelings, especially in Western society, like not all cultures do this, but we bury these feelings and and and force them down and hide them and fail to confront them. Uh uh, and then it like the movie forces her to confront it because these people are to are unburied, you know?

SPEAKER_03 46:25

Yeah, yeah, and and it'll come up later in real life as a tumor or uh you know, when you unload at your office. Yeah. So no, I get it. Yeah, uh, no, I like great idea. Great idea. Just fucking have people at the table who can be like, no, that that doesn't make sense, and have actually trained uh people of literature and story structure, and like there was a there was a good effort. There was a good effort.

SPEAKER_00 46:59

It really sucks. I thought it was really good for a long time, for a long way into the movie, like all the way, seriously, all the way up to that scene where she puts another thing. I was like, this movie's pretty good. I would have rated this movie, I would have rated that higher. I bet it would have got a four if they stopped then. But the final bit there was just so fucking so stupid. It was just so off the rails, left you with unnecessary questions, not not questions about like not high-minded questions, questions about minutia, which is something you should never do. Don't leave you you want the questions you leave to be high-minded, like, oh my gosh, like what would I do in that situation? Or, you know, who who you know what what does this say about life and the world? And and you can have conversations about it. But this is this is questions about dumb little uh procedural shit, which is the worst thing to leave in your movie.

SPEAKER_03 47:59

Well, I do think though that that is the perfect jump. What would you do? We're in this film, it is time for the third portion, it is time to insert ourselves into We Bury the Dead. How does it change once we get involved? I guess uh we wouldn't be there.

unknown 48:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 48:28

I would I would go and I'd be

What We Would Do Instead

SPEAKER_00 48:31

like, I can handle this, and then I'd be that guy who throws up very early in the movie and is like, I can't do this, you gotta get someone else.

SPEAKER_03 48:42

So you're just tapping out, like, nope, I'm good.

SPEAKER_00 48:46

Pretty, pretty early, probably. I'm uh sorry, Sarah. You're I I'm pretty sure you're dead. Like, I've walked through these houses, we're really far. You were way closer to where that bomb went off. I'm I'm certain you're dead.

SPEAKER_03 49:01

There's no way. I can go through my stages of grief right here. Thank you very much.

SPEAKER_00 49:09

I'm gonna Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 49:12

For me, uh, I would do a considerable amount of looting.

SPEAKER_00 49:18

Like like uh, what's his name did? He got the bike. You would you'd be you'd be bike guy. I'd be bike guy.

SPEAKER_03 49:24

But like, no, I'm I'm going uh you'd wear the mask though. You'd you'd wear the mask. I would have a full fucking filter on, I'd tell you that much.

SPEAKER_00 49:34

Um there'd be something a little bit of VIX in there to for the standard.

SPEAKER_03 49:40

No, but I I am definitely going to prevent any sort of airborne kind of situation happening here. When they hand me the little fucking COVID mask, I'm like, you hold on to that. I brought something from home. And then as soon as they fucking broke line of sight with me, each house I went into, uh I'm finding like hidden cash, fucking just treasures. Like, what is taking him so long in each fucking house?

SPEAKER_00 50:12

Um you've just got like pirate treasure chests and stashed away.

SPEAKER_03 50:18

I'd be coming out of each one of them with just fucking loot underneath my arms. And uh, you know, that's that's gonna help me to move on. Yeah, you know, we all have our own ways of coping, and uh mine is taking everything that's not nailed down.

SPEAKER_00 50:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 50:43

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 50:44

You're the king of Tasmania.

SPEAKER_03 50:47

Yeah. Well, I mean, especially because it looks because we we found out with with the rapist fool. Yeah, that it's largely unpatrolled out there, and he's he's been having free reign to just sort of conduct his experiments. So as soon as I learn what he is, I'm just gonna go ahead and put a bullet in him. And yeah, I'm going deeper in there to uh because these zombies seem relatively tame.

SPEAKER_00 51:19

And I mean, we learned that they get worse, that some are worse than others.

SPEAKER_03 51:24

Yeah, but it's nothing that uh a fucking bottle of champagne can't handle.

SPEAKER_00 51:28

Yeah, but you're gonna have to confront you're gonna have to deal with your all your metaphors.

SPEAKER_03 51:34

That's okay. I I have found in this life that it's very easy to figure out your metaphors if your your bank account's fucking stacked.

SPEAKER_00 51:44

Yeah, yeah, yeah. You just go talk to a therapist.

SPEAKER_02 51:47

A therapist zombie, just grinding its teeth at you.

SPEAKER_03 51:53

I'm just like, man, right, you are my fucking rock, dude. I don't know where I'd be without you, man. Um I'd probably be out there talking to fucking Oily Joe.

SPEAKER_00 52:09

Just stares at you all scared.

SPEAKER_03 52:13

So yeah, I would just be sitting in a therapist chair with my chests of loot, working through my problems with Oily Joe and the rest of the gang. And uh yeah, I would just be I'd spend a very short time as King of New Zealand, of Tasmania.

SPEAKER_00 52:31

So Tasmania. Tasmania is part of Australia.

SPEAKER_03 52:36

Potato potato.

SPEAKER_00 52:38

No, it's not. They're two different nations.

SPEAKER_03 52:42

We dropped a bomb on them. It's now just zombie land. So uh I'd spend a very short time as Lloyd. What would you do when you found the baby?

SPEAKER_00 52:52

That's a that's a good, that's a good what would you do question?

SPEAKER_03 52:55

That's a solid question.

SPEAKER_00 52:57

Uh if I was there, I would take care of the baby. I would okay, I would take the baby with me. But I I would never have made it that far. Not necessarily because I'd be killed by a zombie. I'd just be like, yeah, I don't, this is just not for me.

SPEAKER_03 53:12

Yeah, I I I would take the I would take the baby back, um, and I would leave it. Leave it in a bassinet. Like in a bassinet, um, and I'll put like I'll put two doubloons in the bassinet. Um, and just like with a note that says this is for their college. Um, and then I'm taking that boat, I'm dumping her husband.

SPEAKER_02 53:34

Cantalabra.

SPEAKER_03 53:35

Yeah, I'm dumping her husband out of the boat because I'm gonna need that to pass out of here with all my loot intact. And uh yes, I'm gonna bassinet orphan style the baby. I'll put I'll yeah, I'll put a golden candelabra in the bassinet, and then I'm taking the boat the fuck out of here with my ill-gotten booty. And uh uh and then I'm gonna go grieve um at the nearest luxury resort.

SPEAKER_00 54:03

The boat was a hundred percent the right way to get back to where they were originally, like the it's ridiculous. Absolutely insane.

SPEAKER_03 54:12

Like, I I I mean, I I'm I'm assuming Clay just was like thinking that they were gonna be a thing, you know, and he was just like thinking in terms of how can I be there for Daisy Ridley?

SPEAKER_00 54:26

How can I make it so she can't so she so she can never go back to this guy even if he reanimates?

SPEAKER_03 54:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 54:34

So yeah, he threw up all over his dead body, too, asserting his dominance.

SPEAKER_03 54:41

Yeah, like yeah, it was like I don't know if that was necessary. Like you both did each other dirty, and uh tech technically you did first. Like that's why you're here, right? So, like, I I don't know why you guys gotta do desecrate his gorps.

SPEAKER_00 54:59

So, like I don't know, like that whole the everything from then on was totally unnecessary.

SPEAKER_03 55:06

Like they might as well have taken a shovel and just like kind of fucked him up a little bit. I like I don't you want me to beat him up a little bit?

SPEAKER_00 55:14

Sure. Why not?

SPEAKER_03 55:15

Yeah, fuck it. I don't care.

SPEAKER_00 55:17

Can I can I masturbate while I watch?

SPEAKER_03 55:20

Yeah, like it was it was yeah. At that point, it was just indulgence. Um but I mean that's what I would be doing is I like they're getting ready to light it on fire, and I run in there and dump him overboard and drive the fuck off with my chests of loot.

SPEAKER_00 55:36

Um therapist later, dicks.

SPEAKER_03 55:46

Um yeah, and yeah, that's what I would do. So um, but hey, good for us. Zombaby makes it out of there in both instances. So there's that. Good for Zombaby, good for us. Um, I'm glad we figured that out. So, well, there you have it, folks. Uh there is We Bury the Dead in all of the. This movie fumbled it so hard. Yeah, it did. A fourth quarter fumble right there. But hey, at least we had fun. It's about the friends we made along the way. So,

Final Thoughts And Sign Off

SPEAKER_03 56:22

well, everyone, thank you for listening. I'm your host, Ryan Barron North, with me as always, James Crosslin. We're High and Dry Podcast. Bye. Bye.