The Girl With All The Gifts
I started reading M R Carey’s book, The Girl With All The Gifts a few years back, but gave up at a certain point. I was fully engaged and enjoying the book, but suddenly realised that a recent turn of events meant that the story was about to head in a direction that would just annoy the heck out of me. So I gave up.
When news of a film adaptation surfaced I was pretty excited. Whilst as a novel I couldn’t finish it, party of me knew that it would work better as a film. Now it’s been a bit of a wait for the film to actually make it’s way to New Zealand, mainly because it skipped cinema release and failed to get the usual early DVD release.
But I’m happy to say that I’ve now seen it and completely enjoyed it.
I’m gonna assume you’ve not read the book, and give you the obligatory background info, mainly that the story is set well after a zombie outbreak has overrun the world. Only a small group of children seem somewhat immune to the virus, whilst still craving human flesh these children still retain normal human thoughts and emotions. One child in particular, Melanie, stand out from the rest, and as such, when the secret research facility is over run by marauding zombies, Melanie escapes along with her teacher, Miss Justineau, Sergeant Parks and Dr. Caldwell.
Thus begins a journey to find another surviving research facility and use Melanie to help find a cure.
Along the way there are plenty of twists and turns and a sold number of zombies.
The Girl With All The Gifts is not your average zombie film, it’s more like a breath of fresh air to a stagnant genre, and it has echos of I Am Legend – the book rather than the Will Smith film, which help to make it even more memorable.
With a solid performance by Sennia Nanua in the lead role, Girl never falters and delivers an edge of your seats film that not only entertains but also makes you ponder your own worth.
Rating: R16 Violence, offensive language & horror
FILMGUIDE rating:
