The Girl With All The Gifts

Zombies are becoming more popular than vampires. It must be the influence of The Walking Dead, or, maybe, World War Z.

This is a low budget indy Brit addition to the genre with an interesting central theme. It's not a keep-on-running scenario with the cast diminishing slowly, like teens in a wood, until only the stars remain.

There aren't any stars here, although there are, if you count Glenn Close and Gemma Arterton and Paddy Considine playing in a low key. The gifted girl is Melanie (a confident performance from Sennia Nanua). She's the one who matters. She could save the world.

Plot Spoiler 1: London has been overwhelmed by The Hungries who hang around the streets like drug addicts, apparently asleep while standing up. A sudden noise, or the smell of a Normal, will wake them in an instant and then it's feeding time at the zoo.

Melanie is the offspring of a Hungry. She lives with similar children of the same age in individual cells in an underground lab where teacher Helen (Arterton) tells them stories, because that's what they like, and Dr Caldwell (Close) works on a vaccine that involves beheading the young prisoners and dissecting their brains.

Plot Spoiler 2: they escape into the city. Will they survive the Hungries who wait in packs when they're not evolving into creeping vines that produce deadly pods. Will the doc make use of Melanie's brain to conclude her work before she falls victim to blood poisoning? Is the world doomed? Is the film odd enough to be original?

It is excellent at setting up a complex progression of events and trusting Nanua to carry the audience with her. Considine as the army sergeant represents an authoritative figure from the pre-zom era and Arterton is so nice she squeaks.

The real drama is between the doc and the girl. Who will die, and who will die? What happens when the pods explode, releasing their toxic dust? Is there hope for the hopeless?

Sadly the ending disappoints. It's never easy to remain true to Armageddon while retaining a positive attitude towards life after life.