The post apocalyptic, zombie infested London in The Girl with All the Gifts (written by Mike Carey, adapted from his own 2014 novel) looks very much like the one in 2007's 28 Weeks Later (not surprisingly, it sports more or less the same storyline as that Juan Carlos-Fresnadillo directed sequel to 28 Days Later). Abandoned by human population, the quietness and silence surrounding the English capital on Thames river is like an ominous hum of dread, injecting fear and terror into anyone who happens to wander it alone. Melanie (Senia Nanua) is an unusually intelligent girl among children who are called "hungries", or aggressive carnivores capable of devouring human flesh, at an isolated base that's run by scientists and military. When it's discovered that Melanie has a special immunity to the virus, she is taken by Dr. Caldwell (Glenn Close), Sergeant Eddie Parks (Paddy Considine) and her teacher Helen (Gemma Arterton) away to safety after the base is stormed by adult "hungries". The movie's tone remains effectively suspenseful, and its characters quickly grow on us, even though some of the setups feel like cop-outs (Sleepwalking zombies who can't smell or sense humans who are near them unless they detect movement? Too easy). Director Colm McCarthy has created one of the more entertaining zombie horror movies in a few years, and judging by how much competition this particular horror sub-genre has, that is no small feat.
B
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