The Girl With All the Gifts Blu-ray Review
There is little normal about this class–the room is a concrete cube, the students are in wheelchairs and matching outfits, they recite numbers and elements in monotone. For a meal, we see one eating worms. As the girl sits in her room (her cell, really), it’s easy to note that not once has she seen sunlight since the audience has been introduced to her.
The girl is Melanie (Sennia Nanua, in her debut), one of many of the children housed in the facility. These children serve as a kind of hope against the horrors that have occurred aboveground. Used for observation and experimentation, the subjects (called “abortions” by the adults) are the kin of many infected (called “hungries”). Since the children have not fully been consumed by the disease, there are hopes that they will hold the key to relief. The head of the department is Dr. Caroline Caldwell (Glenn Close, THE GREAT GILLY HOPKINS), who ensures Melanie she is the key, hoping to use her brain as the launching point for the necessary solution. Her sole contact with an adult with no agenda and much sympathy is her teacher, Miss Justineau (Gemma Arterton, THE HISTORY OF LOVE), who risks her career and wellbeing to treat her students as people.
It would be just to say, “Oh, great, another zombie movie.” (Zombie fever has been on blast for a number of years now–would it be a surprise if this decade alone saw the release of 100 or so?–so it’s a bit difficult to imagine one that would truly catch the audience off guard.) But THE GIRL WITH ALL THE GIFTS, adapted from M.R. Carey’s 2014 novel (Carey also wrote the screenplay), works to stand out. So many of the tropes of the genre are present, but that’s expected. What moves the movie past this is that it feels like there is actual danger occurring, that there is something at stake. (The zombies themselves are fairly basic, although their snarls pose a drooling threat.)
While certainly far from original or the pantheon of zombie movies, THE GIRL WITH ALL THE GIFTS is able to add some energy to the much-worn genre. Director Colm McCarthy (2010’s OUTCAST; he has also helmed episodes of PEAKY BLINDERS and more) has an eye for what works here, whether frantic or eerie, exemplified in the creepy moment when Melanie moves through a field of zombies, still as cornstalks.
One of the best moments of the movie comes when Melanie first reemerges on soil, having escaped from the facility. In one chaotic, two-minute-long shot, the scene is filled with bullets, thumpings, chompings as Melanie proves to be both zombified and human, gnashing a series of necks and tricking militarymen in order to save her teacher.
It is the character of Melanie that helps make THE GIRL WITH ALL THE GIFTS one of the more satisfying zombie movies of the decade. While she is a variation of other protagonists, the natural performance by newcomer Sennia Nanua not only enhances the character, but gives the movie more weight.
BLU-RAY REVIEW
Video: 2.00:1 in 1080p with MPEG-4 AVC codec. Details are strong for the duration, but colors and textures fully start to show in the outdoor scenes.
Audio: English 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio. Subtitles in Spanish. Audio is also good, with clean dialogue and effective music cues.
Unwrap the Secret World of THE GIRL WITH ALL THE GIFTS (20:45) uses interviews, clips and on-set footage to give an overview of the movie.
DVD
UltraViolet