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Review: The Girl with All the Gifts (2016) ★★★

<p class&equals;"p1"><span class&equals;"s1">One of the primary issues plaguing modern horror is stories that often don’t have the legs to reach a satisfying conclusion&semi; intriguing premises are born&comma; live a short and mildly entertaining life&comma; and then wither and die after the first hour or so&period; In the post-apocalyptic zombie film&comma; this problem should theoretically be a thing of the past&comma; as the genre requires narratives to move toward some kind of resolution&colon; the survivors escape or destroy the zombies&comma; they find a way to cope with the epidemic&comma; or they fail and die&period; However&comma; not all of these options are equal&period; Coping with a zombie apocalypse can be a difficult concept to pull off&comma; as it may require audiences to suspend their disbelief to a greater degree&period; Despite this difficulty&comma; it has been done in films before &lpar;I will not list them here so as not spoil endings for anyone&rpar;&period; In<em> The Girl with All the Gifts<&sol;em>&comma; the ending is not spoiled because the film&comma; from start to finish&comma; is about coping with the zombie apocalypse&period; <&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"p1"><span class&equals;"s1">Naturally&comma; as with almost all of these kinds of films&comma; the remaining humans work tirelessly to rid the world of the zombies&comma; but&comma; in the temporary absence of such a cure&comma; they learn to function in the defensive&comma; barricading themselves behind walls until they can find a solution&period; It never abandons the idea that humanity&comma; for better or worse&comma; must try to flourish&comma; no matter the cost&period; While <em>The Girl with All the Gifts<&sol;em> takes the genre in a new and interesting direction&comma; it fails to maintain its narrative strength&comma; ultimately descending into absurdity&period;<&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"p1"><span class&equals;"s1">The film begins in a prison-like facility&comma; where military personnel treat a group of children as dangerous prisoners&period; The children sleep in isolated cells&comma; and must be kept in wheelchairs that restrain their head&comma; hands&comma; and feet whenever they are allowed to leave&period; While the children seem perfectly harmless&comma; we come to find out that they are a special breed of infected zombies&colon; they crave human flesh&comma; but are still capable of communicating and exhibiting &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;normal” behavior&period; It is only by supplying the children with a diet of live worms and masking the scent of human flesh with a special gel that the remaining humans are able to control and study the children&period; One child in particular&comma; Melanie &lpar;Sennia Nanua&rpar;&comma; shows particular aptitude and cheerfulness despite her circumstances&comma; and her teacher&comma; Helen &lpar;Gemma Arterton&rpar;&comma; rewards her with kindness&comma; even though this is generally restricted at the facility&period; When Dr&period; Caroline Caldwell &lpar;Glenn Close&rpar; is close to finding a cure&comma; a cure that will also kill Melanie in the process&comma; the base is suddenly overrun by zombies &lpar;referred to as &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Hungries” in the film&rpar;&comma; and a small group of survivors must try to escape with Melanie and reach another outlying base&period;<&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><span class&equals;"s1"><em>The Girl with All the Gifts<&sol;em> does everything right to establish a good post-apocalyptic film&colon; a small&comma; isolated group of survivors&comma; living under a unique set of rules&comma; working tirelessly to find an end to the disease that has brought about the apocalypse&comma; suddenly overrun by zombies&period; At times&comma; the film resembles <em>28 Days Later<&sol;em> &lpar;2002&rpar;&comma; both in the structure of the plot and&comma; to a degree&comma; the nature of the zombies&period; However&comma; about two-thirds of the way through&comma; the story takes a turn that is far-fetched and cloying&period; I won&&num;8217&semi;t divulge how the story progresses&comma; as it would spoil the entire film&comma; but it must be said that the film&&num;8217&semi;s second half isn&&num;8217&semi;t nearly as good as the first&period;<&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;1394" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-1394" style&equals;"width&colon; 850px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-1394" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;philosophyinfilm&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2018&sol;02&sol;girl-with-all-the-gifts-300x143&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Sennia Nanua in The Girl with All the Gifts 2016" width&equals;"850" height&equals;"406" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-1394" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">The Girl with All the Gifts &lpar;2016&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"p1"><span class&equals;"s1">When looking back at <em>The Girl with All the Gifts<&sol;em> as a whole&comma; it is not just the ending that does the film in&period; Like many zombie horror films&comma; it derives its entertainment value from pure adrenaline&period; From the moment the base is overrun&comma; it becomes a heart-pounding race through endless hordes of zombies&period; It is effective at making the film highly entertaining&comma; but it also distracts from the fact that&comma; without the intrigue of the initial premise&comma; there is just not much going on&period; The dialogue is predictable&comma; the characters are all archetypes&comma; the acting is mediocre&comma; and when you combine this with a disappointing resolution&comma; it makes the thrilling sequences feel retrospectively shallow&period; <&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"p1"><span class&equals;"s1">If you love post-apocalyptic zombie films or are simply an avid fan of horror in general&comma; <em>The Girl with All the Gifts<&sol;em> is certainly worth watching&period; But be warned&comma; it will set your expectations high in the beginning&comma; only to disappoint you later on&period;<&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><span class&equals;"s1">Rating&colon; <&sol;span><span class&equals;"s2">&starf;&starf;&starf;<&sol;span><span class&equals;"s1"> out of 5<&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>If you&&num;8217&semi;d like to watch <span class&equals;"s1"><em>The Girl with All the Gifts<&sol;em>&comma; it is available to purchase <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;amazon&period;com&sol;gp&sol;product&sol;B06VXZJ4CJ&sol;ref&equals;as&lowbar;li&lowbar;qf&lowbar;asin&lowbar;il&lowbar;tl&quest;ie&equals;UTF8&amp&semi;tag&equals;mjones34880c-20&amp&semi;creative&equals;9325&amp&semi;linkCode&equals;as2&amp&semi;creativeASIN&equals;B06VXZJ4CJ&amp&semi;linkId&equals;e66968cd6e6cf07e18706dcd8e056d87">via Amazon here<&sol;a>&period;<&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;

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