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Review: The Girl With All The Gifts

The Girl with All the Gifts is, to some extent, a zombie flick. In this movie, the zombies are called hungries. Hungries are the 28 Days Later running type, not the Night of the Living Dead shuffling variety. It is an unsurprisingly faithful adaptation of the eponymous novel by M.R. Carey, since Carey himself adapted it for the screen.

The story does score some originality points. The hungries are fungal-infected humans whose main sense is smell. There are blocker gels that survivors produce to stay undetected by hungries. Also, there is a group of child hungries who are able to retain their mental functions most of the time. One of them is the main character. Nevertheless, besides these unique points, the zombies’ appearance and behaviour are all too familiar.

Zombie movie is a tired trope. Despite inheriting some originality from the novel, the movie ends up borrowing some predictable genre staples. For most of the movie, the protagonists roam zombie-infested locales for water and food while trying to survive. It does not help that the plot moves slowly with many expositions, which might work well in the book but would bore movie audience. Due to the slow pace, the movie seriously lacks suspense.

The main protagonist, one of the child hungries named Melanie, is beautifully played by newcomer Sennia Nanua. She gives a nuanced portrayal of a precocious, innocent girl who is coming to terms with the fact that she might be a danger to those around her. Gemma Arterton succeeds in selling the motherly love of Helen Justineau, Melanie’s teacher, who cares about Melanie despite knowing that she is a flesh-eating zombie. Glenn Close embodies her role as Dr. Caroline Caldwell who shows conviction in her ethically questionable methods in pursuit of the greater good.

The world-building in this movie is neat. It shows us abandoned but familiar cities and houses, giving the impression that this is a near, plausible future. It remains post-apocalyptic with some futuristic technology, but they hardly seem far-fetched. The score of the film also serves to build the ambience and supports the story well.

The biggest issue I have is with the abrupt, confusing ending. It might be interesting for a philosophical discussion, but the storytelling felt rushed with hardly any foreshadowing. Nevertheless, I would give it credit for not succumbing to the temptation of giving it a Hollywood ending.

The Girl with All The Gifts is neither a typical zombie flick nor a typical sci-fi adventure. The combination does make it unique, but it also felt like it is neither here nor there, too afraid to be pigeonholed. Its sci-fi adventure side is stifling the horror and suspense, while its zombie flick side is limiting the scope of adventure. It might have been more entertaining if it embraced either side more fully. - Freddy