Director: Colm
McCarthy
Notable Cast: Sennia
Nanua, Gemma Arterton, Paddy Considine, Glenn Close, Fisayo Akinade, Anamaria
Marinca, Dominique Tipper, Anthony Welsh
For a while there, thanks to shows like The Walking Dead, zombies came back as all the rage. Sure, that
trend perhaps started with Zack Snyder’s Dawn
of the Dead remake, but it finally started to die out a few years ago as
the casual horror viewer moved onto other trends like vampires, werewolves, or
the current demonic ghost/witch that is haunted up the cineplexes. Thank God.
It was getting to the point that I just didn’t give a shit about zombies
anymore and being raised on the genre, it felt a bit like betrayal. Still,
there are a handful of zombie films that pop up now and again, but they are
usually of a higher quality and a bit more effective. Last year we got the
South Korean melting pot Train to Busan
which was excellent and effective at its use of modern zombies. This year, we
already have a runner to be the zombie flick to beat, The Girl with All the Gifts. Unlike Train to Busan, The Girl with
All the Gifts attempts to use its zombie tropes and superb execution to
take the genre into some familiar, but fresh feeling territory. At its heart,
it might still be a Day of the Dead
kind of zombie film, but its attempts at crafting a social commentary and very
impressive characters makes it a heartfelt and emotional film worthy of the
praise it has already been receiving.