Review #1,161: 'The Girl with All the Gifts' (2016)

Colm McCarthy's The Girl with All the Gifts, written in novel form and for the screen in tandem by Mike Carey, seems to have aspirations of greatness: To be that great British horror movie many of us are waiting for, and harking back to iconic pieces of horror/science fiction literature such as Richard Matheson's I Am Legend. McCarthy, who has mainly worked for television (directing episodes of Ripper Street, Doctor Who and Peaky Blinders amongst many others), certainly makes a valiant effort to help distinguish the film from a seemingly endless wave of zombie movies, but the plot rarely strays from the tropes of the post-apocalyptic road trip.

The titular girl with all the gifts is the exceptionally intelligent Melanie (Sennia Nanua), a child who appears to live in a dark cell within an underground military bunker. She is routinely ushered into English lessons strapped to a wheelchair with her arms, legs and head restrained. We soon learn that such extreme measures are taken because Melanie is a 'hungry' - someone infected by a mysterious fungal disease responsible for turning most of humanity into flesh-eating zombies. Only she is one of a few born infected with the virus who is also capable of interacting with the uninfected, and she and her classmates are believed by Dr. Caldwell (Glenn Close) to be the key to a cure. When the base is attacked by a hoard of the undead, Caldwell flees with Melanie, taking kindhearted teacher Helen (Gemma Arterton) and grizzled soldier Sgt. Parks (Paddy Considine) to find a safe place to finish the experimentation.

To her credit, Nanua more than holds her own against seasoned veterans such as Close and Considine, and Melanie's sweet, curious nature combined with her instinct to kill is the film's strongest suit. However, this is more of an ensemble piece, and by taking the attention away from Melanie to focus on explaining the epidemic and placing the group into a simple get-from-A-to-B storyline, it loses its edge. The sagging middle aside - which often feels like a better-filmed episode of The Walking Dead and offers only one memorable set-piece involving a swarm of sleeping living dead - events are book-ended by an intriguing beginning and thoughtful ending. The opening is successful in luring you in before deteriorating into a midst of exposition and gun-fire, and the final moments, which ponder a different kind of future, highlight just how great things could have been.


Directed by: Colm McCarthy
Starring: Gemma Arterton, Sennia Nanua, Paddy Considine, Glenn Close
Country: UK/USA

Rating: ***

Tom Gillespie