The Girl With All the Gifts (2016)

Review

111min

Genre:       Drama, Horror, Thriller

Director:    Colm McCarthy

Cast:         Sennia Nanua, Gemma Arterton, Paddy Considine…and more

Writer:      Mike Carey

-Synopsis-

In a dystopian future where most of humanity is wiped out by a fungal infection which turns people into mindless cannibals; a group of surviving British scientists and soldiers embark on a dangerous journey along with a unique infected young girl, who might prove to be our saviour in this screen adaptation of M.R. Carey’s acclaimed novel.

Young newcomer Sennia Nanua stars as “Melanie”, a mysterious and intelligent young infected girl held in a facility with other children who have a resistance to the infectious fungus, preventing them from being perpetual mindless “hungries” but still carriers, and dangerous ones at that. They’re held by “Sgt. Parks” (Paddy Considine) and his soldiers, taught by “Ms. Justineau” (Gemma Arterton) and researched by “Dr. Caldwell” (Glenn Close). But when things take a turn, a small group venture out into the dangerous world in this new take on the Zombie survival thriller.

Before Horror purists start complaining that this isn’t a Zombie movie because it doesn’t feature the reanimated “undead”; remember there are no strict agreed-upon rules here and it’s all within the same sub-genre, so we’re calling  ’em Zombies, deal with it.

In his second feature British TV director Colm McCarthy teams up with writer Mike Carey, who adapts his own novel for the screen, in what is essentially a Zombie apocalypse survival thriller combined with a character drama, with a little conscience and an unexpected twist. Armed with a modest budget and limited West-Midlands locations; the scope of the story is narrow and the effects & prosthetics are not the most impressive, but there’s a reasonable amount of blood & gore to unsettle viewers… although not nearly enough for horror purists.

Carey adds dimension to the modern Zombie narrative by adding pertinent elements of Greek mythology, including the “Iphigenia in Aulis” sacrifice story in the “Trojan War” myths, and a strong focus on a version of the “Pandora’s Box” myth, with a twist. It also subverts the genre slightly by taking a sympathetic view of the “infected” while trafficking in existential musings about what they actually are. But despite some original elements, there’s no getting around the elephant-in-the-room in terms of where the story in ‘The Girl with all the Gifts’ really comes from.

We’re certainly used to seeing movie adaptations of popular novels, or films being heavily “inspired” by earlier movies; but rarely do you encounter a book that could almost qualify as an adaptation of a film, and in this case it’s impossible to separate M.R. Carey’s 2014 novel from Danny Boyle’s 2002 modern horror classic ’28 Days Later’, and its sequel/spin-off ’28 Weeks Later’. Just replace virus with fungal infection and the “infected” with the “hungries”, while slightly altering the narratives.

From the nature of the “Zombies”, to the setting, and even the slightly tweaked concept of a not fully converted child virus “carrier” as a potential cure, originally explored in ’28 Weeks Later’, there’s nothing particularly original here. With less than two hours to work with, the character drama element of the book, which is arguably its strength, doesn’t translate well to film and just isn’t fleshed out enough… pardon the pun.

So if you’re gonna make a Danny Boyle-style British Zombie apocalypse thriller, you might as well go all-out and make something memorable for a discerning audience, but that’s where ‘The Girl with all the Gifts’ really fails to deliver and becomes a frustrating experience.

The film never really commits to being a true horror/thriller or a character drama, and the result is rather tame experience when you compare it with what’s come before. Sure the production gets through plenty of blood-packs, but there’s a lack of ferociousness and dynamism when it comes to the zombies, it’s just not that scary or disturbing, even when you factor in the children.

What you’re left is a reasonably riveting story with a narrow scope and adequate performances, apart from the great Glenn Close who shines; all within a journey which doesn’t go far, but with a major twist which separates it from its precursors in the sub-genre, plus an unexpected if slightly underwhelming conclusion.

The Bottom Line…

Despite introducing some new dramatic character elements and an interesting narrative twist, ‘The Girl with all the Gifts’ is ultimately a pale imitation of a brace of films which revolutionised a horror sub-genre; a fairly entertaining British indie which seems caught between a thriller and a drama, without excelling as either and failing to capture the magic of the popular novel it’s based on.

Similar films you may like (Home Video)

28 Weeks Later (2007)

28 weeks after the original “rage virus” outbreak decimated the British population, an area of London secured by the US army is designated to rebuild the population; but when things take another horrifically tragic turn, a small group of doctors and soldiers escort two invaluable young survivors on a dangerous escape journey.

Directed by  Juan Carlos Fresnadillo and starring Rose Byrne, Robert Carlyle and Jeremy Renner among others.

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