Zombie movie – tick. Set in Tasmania – tick. Starring Daisy Ridley – okay, I can go with that.

I didn’t hesitate when booking my ticket to this new film by Australian director Zak Hilditch. I know it’s a well worn genre but I love the different ways directors approach it and the experience of sitting with that question of who we would be in an apocalypse.

The provocation for this tale is that the nasty Americans have unexpectedly and ‘accidentally’ detonated an experimental weapon off the coast of Tasmania. It instantly has laid devastation to Hobart and killed the brain of every other person on the island. We join the military-led cleanup crews as they begin to go door-to-door to retrieve and identify the bodies. Along for the ride is Ridley‘s Ava, one of the hated Americans who is here to try and track down the body of her husband who was attending a work retreat south of Hobart.

Ava is a fish out of water, a deliberate choice so that we can see how she makes her way through strange lands into the forbidden zone where her husband Mitch (Matt Whelan) is lying dead somewhere, or probably lying dead somewhere. I say probably because some of the corpses have come back ‘online’.

Ava‘s quest sees her link up for awhile with Aussie larrikin Clay (Brenton Thwaites) and also get caught up in the complex story of soldier Riley (Mark Coles Smith). The story moves through scenes of high tension where lives are at stake, some beautifully shot road tripping and also quiet moments of introspection where we understand that this is about grief and redemption.

It’s surprisingly effective and, although the Australian suburban streets look pretty tidy, the apocalypse and the zombies and their rationale are believable. There are some key scenes that stand out, particularly the moment with the family from the mobile home and the ups and downs of Ava‘s interactions with Riley.

There were probably only two small disappointments. One was the ending. I understand why they did it and I think it will appeal to a mainstream audience but it felt forced. The other was discovering that it was all filmed in Western Australia. I know this is probably just a financial choice, but I felt a little cheated that we weren’t travelling through the beautiful wildness of Tasmania.