by Ed Travis
There’s always gas left in the tank of any subgenre. Sometimes it’s just a lot harder to siphon it out than others. Writer (novel and screenplay) Mike Carey and director (Peaky Blinders) Colm McCarthy have found a way to reignite the zombie subgenre in thrilling and previously unimaginable ways with The Girl With All The Gifts, and the results are staggering.
There are always some standard questions with each new zombie film that comes along. Fast or slow? Virus-caused? Cause unexplained? Cause extra-terrestrial? Will we be seeing the outbreak or the aftermath? Both? Carey and McCarthy seem to be completely aware of the general audiences questions, and throw us into their own unique zombie-verse, answering some of those questions fairly quickly, making us guess at the others, and then taking us into totally uncharted territory and asking their own questions about humanity and the end of mankind.
At first we’re kept as in the dark as our titular girl Melanie (Sennia Nanua). We see the world of The Girl With All The Gifts through her experience. She lives in a bunker filled with other kids in isolation cells. They’re strapped to chairs and brought into a bizarre classroom where they’re educated and subjected to constant tests. There’s a strong military presence, with soldiers entering her room every morning with guns drawn in order to strap her into her chair. Melanie seems almost preternaturally cheerful, greeting each armed soldier with a genuine “good morning”. Her teacher, Helen Justineau (Gemma Arterton), has formed a clear bond with her, but the soldiers (led by the never-not-great Paddy Considine as Sgt. Eddie Parks) make it clear the children aren’t to be trusted, referring to them as “its”. As an audience, we don’t know what to think; we’ve yet to see anything outside the confines of Melanie’s captive life. And that’s as refreshing as it sounds. Carey and McCarthy have us in good hands, and they’ll dole out the breadcrumbs of their fascinating story with just the right rhythm to keep us following.
As our main band of characters are forced out of their compound and onto the road, the film becomes a nail-biting race to the finish line. Melanie is trying to soak in everything she can, discovering who she is and how she can relate to the others in the party. Justineau is ever her advocate and protector, even as we aren’t sure that’s a healthy role, and as it becomes clearer and clearer that perhaps Melanie is more capable of protecting than Justineau. Glenn Close is along for the adventure as Dr. Caroline Caldwell, as doggedly centered on finding a cure for the zombie outbreak as the zombies are on consuming flesh. Set piece after set piece keep us on edge as Carey’s clever script reveals its characters to us through their actions and builds up the world for us at just the right pace to satiate our curiosity and keep raising new questions at the same time. Nothing will be spoiled here, as the discovery is essential to this journey. But The Girl With All The Gifts enters into a grand zombie tradition of exploring complex social issues through genre in engaging and surprising ways. The worthiness of our very human race is on the examining block here with this film, and we’re found wanting in so many ways. It’s the perfect kind of genre hybrid film which leaves you tense and rattled from the thrills of the experience, and simultaneously touched and pondering how we can do better as a species.
There’s so very much to love about The Girl With All The Gifts. Every performance is strong, with star Sennia Nanua breaking out in a huge way and going toe to toe with all the veteran actors, not the least of which being Glenn Close. Close is fantastic here, with a close-cropped haircut and a singular focus on saving the human race which may have stripped her of all humanity. The dynamics between each character in our band of travellers are strong, with each one learning from the other and bringing their own strengths to the quest of survival. And in the meantime Carey has adapted his own novel into a cracking screenplay with knowing bits of character-driven humor, absolutely white-knuckle action/horror sequences, and a beating heart. McCarthy keeps the visuals interesting and the pacing on point. Even the score from Cristobal Tapia de Veer is haunting and memorable.
In the post-zombie and post-young adult fiction world of 2016, with almost every last drop of juice squeezed out of these trends, The Girl With All The Gifts is a raging inferno of entertainment and thought provoking fiction that transcends the genres and fads it is borne of and becomes a great new thing. Check out The Girl With All The Gifts, but you’ll have to decide for yourself how close you want to get to her.
And I’m Out.