Melanie [Sennia Nanua] has grown up in a world enduring a zombie-like apocalypse thanks to a fungus known as the Ophiocordyceps unilateralis. She lives under heavy guard for reasons that are initially unclear, but when her home falls to the horde and she goes on the run, it emerges that she may be the key to ending the struggle.
The Girl With All The Gifts opens with a young girl called Melanie [Nanua] lovingly examining a photo of a kitten in a bare, concrete room. Her morning alarm — a siren — sounds, someone bangs on the metal door, then she’s restrained, at gunpoint, before being trussed in restraints like a diminutive Hannibal Lecter before being wheeled to class. It’s a startling, upsetting beginning to an adaptation of a novel about a teenage heroine that makes The Hunger Games look like The Care Bears Movie.
The best zombie-ish apocalypse in years.
Why is this polite, perky kid treated like a monster? The answer unfolds as we meet a sympathetic teacher, Miss Justineau [Gemma Arterton], a sometimes brutal guard, Sgt Parks [Paddy Considine], and single-minded researcher Dr Caldwell [Glenn Close]. An infectious fungus has reduced most of humanity to ravening flesh-eaters called ‘hungries’ [not as far-fetched as you might hope; Google “zombie fungus” and prepare for nightmares] who become frenzied at the smell of uninfected blood. Dr Caldwell suspects that Melanie and her kind — infected, but still conscious, children — may hold the key to a cure. But their fortified base is breached before Caldwell can finish her work, and a small party, including Melanie, find themselves running towards a safe haven.
This film is rooted deep in the zombie genre, from Romero’s meaty social commentary to 28 Days Later’s depiction of fast ‘infected’ in a derelict London to the killer fungus of The Last Of Us. But the tense atmosphere has more in common with the bleak, British sci-fi of Threads or The Day Of The Triffids than with some of the more bombastic American catastrophes. Still, while Mike Carey, adapting his own novel, has crafted a believable apocalypse, he and director Colm McCarthy [in only his second feature] use it principally as the backdrop to a moral story about complex, compromised characters.
Close, Considine and Arterton are established quantities, of course, and there’s further able support from Fisayo Akinade and Anthony Welsh. But it’s Nanua who proves the secret weapon. Her Melanie is bright and eager to learn, but more attentive and analytical than the adults sometimes realise. The combination of childlike delight in this brave new world and sometimes violent cunning is brilliantly balanced.
Behind the sunnier scenes as she naively explores her new surroundings lurks a classic conflict between individual and group needs. Humankind may benefit if Caldwell studies Melanie, but Melanie would not survive the procedure. And as the small group of survivors finally get the chance to see her as a person rather than a lab rat, their relationships change. Parks, in particular, shifts from open hostility to a guarded sort of mentoring, while Caldwell visibly begins to doubt her own assertions that Melanie is not a real child at all. Justineau becomes almost a mother figure to the lonely girl, but has trouble dealing with the devastated environment outside.
Makes The Hunger Games look like The Care Bears Movie.
Despite their growing camaraderie, all the adults are still afraid of the youngster, and if this is an allegory, it’s only barely. Teens all half-suspect, deep down, that their elders would prefer them restrained, while adults are equally scared that their offspring will supplant them. That inter-generational mistrust is reflected here in surprising ways as Melanie grows in her new environment. The slowly unfolding apocalypse around her would justify a certain level of despair — but Melanie’s gift, amid the devastation, is to hold on to her own peculiar form of hope.
The best zombie-ish apocalypse in years. Sennia Nanua is a major discovery, but it’s the dense social commentary and moral dilemmas that will haunt you.
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The best zombie-ish apocalypse in years. Sennia Nanua is a major discovery, but it’s the dense social commentary and moral dilemmas that will haunt you.
It’s a film for people who thought they never needed to sit through another zombie flick.
This movie is the culmination of the zombie film. From the writing to the cinematography, nothing feels out of place. The characters are exceptional and the entire cast is really solid. The lead actor, Sennia Nanua, makes the role. She has made a genre film that will only get better with time. I look forward to watching it often.
10 out of 10. I was suprised by how god it was. The start and the ending. All amazing. The makeup and effects are awesome. I read the book and both are awesome.
“Girl” might be the most inadvertently appropriate analog to life in 2017’s increasingly unstable world, by suggesting that it may very well become necessary to co-exist with ongoing terror, especially if the only other option is walking directly into the path of a flesh-eating pack.
Starts off strong but dilutes its impact with every consecutive reveal.
It’s got some future-world smarts that sporadically elevate it above the junk that dominates this genre, and they help carry it through the routine spatter-and-gore moments and sci-fi clichés.
There are substantial talents involved in this film, but it doesn’t come together.
The film wants to have its flesh and eat it too, but even more damning is how little meat is on its bones to begin with.
The Girl With All The Gifts is an amazing adaptation on the novel it is based upon it is a refreshing new look at the zombie genre with Acton styling of 28 days later and amazing cinematography that puts you in mind of the post apocalyptic scenery from The Last Of Us bit brought to life it a fantastic movie and a must watch
It is hilarious to compare the pretentious prattle of Clayton Dillard[Slantmagazine] dishing this one a 38 out of 100 to Helen O'Hara[Empire] who lauds it with an astonishing 100 out of 100. Dillard spots a lack of precision in the geometrically conceived stylization and feels it is a let down compared to Resident Evil: Retribution and Children of Men. I kid you not. If you happen to feel that this movie doesn't stand up to Alien[s], Blade Runner and Jurassic Park due to the egregious lack of a captivating comparative social narrative you are totally valid in that assessment. Just remember that pretentiousness demands the combination of at least three important sounding words, bonus points for adding more[I got four]. O'Hara in turn praises not only the acting skills of the kid wonder but predicts that it’s the dense social commentary[note: three words] and moral dilemmas that will haunt you. A denseness that will haunt you? I know it will... I wonder who is on a trip further away from reality? And did they snort the same pods? In any event.. for those who live closer to the real world: it is an zombie flick in which the zombies are called hungries as to deceive you into thinking that these flesh eating dead aren't zombies. This time it isn't a virus, but a fungus. Not that it matters: it works the same way: get bitten and you become one. Further stuff we might have seen before. Mad Scientist[capitals as it is a trope], played by Glenn Close, who thinks she can save the world by using infected kids as ingredients for her cure. An infected kid who is jolly polite and eats cats[the latter amounts to the greatest sin of all according to my daughters]. An accidental hero[ine] who thwarts the Mad Scientist. Doomed soldiers who are there to die[obviously]. A military base that gets overrun[cause zombies win from machineguns, flamethrowers, rockets and nukes hands down every time]. And Important Words. As extra you will see the kids from Beyond the Thunderdome as smart zombies hunt down one of hapless soldiers. Then they get put in their place when the jolly kid defeats their leader in a truly atrocious kids fight. Do they ever learn? In between stuff happening the band of hapless survivors talk about stuff. Feelings, their spouses and siblings and the end of the world. It must be that dense social commentary I missed. Well, I didn't actually, but I did. It's a decent flick.. but it cannot be held against you when you think it a dime in a dozen. Cause frankly.. it is all it is. The acting is at least okay even though nothing remarkable comes from it. Let me favor it with a six cause it is Tuesday.
The movie starts off strong but with every gradual reveal in the movie it just gets worse and worse and almost borderline comical
I lost interest halfway through. The plot makes absolutely no sense, and the science is vague at best. There's no character development at all which makes me feel like I'm wasting my time. The film has no resolution which is unsatisfying. Why is it that almost all zombie movies have no ending or answer as to what caused the apocalypse or how it was resolved? Hopefully the book was better. There are way better zombie movies out there. I'd skip this one. I wanted to like this one. But they spent way too much time in quiet school-setting talking scenes that had nothing to do with the plot. Zombie movies benefit from quick plot development cut with mind-numbing action. This film just took too long to get there. Also, the genre is saturated with these films, and this is a generic entry in a long list of zombie movies. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't great either. It ****.
This movie comes from a very disturbed mind.. and not in a good way. It celebrates sympathy for the devil. Zombies are to be empathized with, and people are the monsters. Zombies are nothing more than the earth's ecology taking over the planet, as is right and proper. If you're a liberal you're going to love this one! Why bring politics into this you might say? Because to minds like the one who conceived of this horrible film, politics is not about management of the society, it's a quest to display the more altruism than the next person. This movie takes altruism, to the extent of rebellion against mankind itself.. in favor of nature, to a disturbing level. I hope historians of the future view this movie as a good example of the mass insanity which plagued our age.. or perhaps like in the movie, a new species will reign that actually views this insanity as appealing. If you're someone who believes in relocating ISIS to sanctuary cities, and that failure of the economy is justified in the name of fighting climate change, you're really going to love this movie.
Production Company BFI Film Fund, Creative England, Altitude Film Entertainment, Poison Chef