In “We Bury the Dead,” zombies stagger, groan and splatter, but they also do a lot of nothing. One cowers behind some garage shelving. Another flutters her eyelids. Here, the undead are not just bellicose menaces but also victims of circumstance.

A neat little thriller, the movie takes place in the aftermath of a global calamity. An experimental American weapon accidentally detonated, annihilating the population of Tasmania. Ava (Daisy Ridley), whose husband was on a work trip on the island, hurries to volunteer in the Australian state’s body retrieval program, hoping to find her hubby alive — or at least awake.

Although there are no survivors of the blast, some of the casualties have reanimated. The military insists the grayish ghouls are brain-dead and guns down any corpses showing signs of life. But as the almost implausibly intrepid Ava inches closer to finding her husband, “We Bury the Dead” suggests an innovation to the form. Since at least the work of George A. Romero, heroes of zombie flicks would prefer the lifeless to stay that way. Ava is dead set on hers springing back.

This twist on the apocalyptic survival story was written and directed by the Australian filmmaker Zak Hilditch, and sometimes feels like a reluctant entrant to the subgenre. It incorporates the requisite jump scares and axe-wielding chase sequences, but the tactics tend to feel perfunctory. “We Bury the Dead” is most haunting when it gestures at a world dazed with trauma and explores a path to personal closure through collective efforts.

We Bury the Dead
Rated R for carnage down under. Running time: 1 hour 34 minutes. In theaters.