Nothing against zombies but they’re not usually my cup of tea. If I respect your tastes then I’m up for trying new things – cuture-wise. That is how I came across the novel by Mike Carey or (M.R. Carey is his professional signature). I was sold on the  existential coming-of-age tale of a young girl growing up in a dystopian, post-apocalyptic Britain, overrun by zombies, or “hungries” as they are referred to in the world of The Girl With All The Gifts.

Melanie is a ten year-old girl living in a Guantanamo Bay-like military base with a group of other children in orange jumpsuits. In its mirthless concrete surroundings, there is some sort of experiment going on and the children are the subjects. A rigid routine of lessons and solitude while being observed by head scientist Dr Caldwell, and the continuing disappearence of classmates is all that Melanie knows.

We meet her counting down the clock-work routine of the wake-up call; where she calmly straps herself into a wheelchair and pleasantly greets the soldiers with assault rifles (pointed to her) as they escort her and the other children to their lessons. All the children’s favourite lessons – and in particular Melanie’s – are conducted by a young woman Miss Helen Justineau – a behavioural therapist – who seems the only person in this facility who treats the children with any kind of kindness or respect. It becomes apparent that Melanie is also Helen’s favourite too, as the most intelligent – with a genius-level IQ – and most inquisitive of the children. An incident where in physical contact is made between Helen and Melanie reveals to her and her classmates that they are actually hungries – but not like normal hungries who lose all mental facilities and exist only to feast; these children can interact, learn and imitate the behaviours of an uninfected person, only losing control when they pick up human scent. They are test subjects for Dr Caldwell as she nears a possible cure to the Ophiocordyceps unilateralis fungus that destroyed humanity.

While Melanie grapples with this revelation about herself, the base is attacked and overrun by hungries. She tastes flesh for the first time, killing two soldiers as she saves Helen and together with a now badly wounded Dr Caldwell, Sergeant Parks who’s pet name for the children at the base is “frigging abortions” and the very green Private Callagher, the motley crew attempt to head to Beacon, one of the few remaining functioning cities where the uninfected live under heavy guard. On their treacherous journey, avoiding hungries and seeking help; Melanie discovers a world she was only taught about, the devastation caused by the fungus and how her and those like her have the potential to create a new world.

Quite frankly the book was a revelation, clever, unsettling, engrossing. As was the film. That’s not to say I didn’t have some slight tribulations before the film. Integral to the surrogate mother/daughter relationship (and central to the plot) of young Melanie and Helen is that Melanie is deathly white (because she’s kind of half-dead) and Helen is an attractive middle-aged black women. Helen is the only black person Melanie has ever encountered which adds to her fascination and adoration of Helen. It also would have been nice to have seen a black British actress a role in a British film which still unfortunately seems such a rarity.  I also wasn’t so sure of the point of swapping the races of the two. But as Mike Carey, author of the novel was also on board as screenwriter, I assumed they must know what they’re doing…

The casting of Gemma Arterton as Helen did incite an internal eye roll – I have to disclose that I have nothing against Ms Arterton, it just made me think another juicy role for an older actress (especially if its not going to a black actress) gone to another pretty young white thing*.
I was somewhat allayed by the presence of Paddy Considine and more importantly the perfect casting of Glenn Close as Dr Caldwell.
Within the first ten minutes of the film, I was on side by the relevatory debut performance of Sennia Nanua as Melanie and I can now almost forgive the dropping of that interesting racial dynamic – it still plays as slightly reductive to the potency of their connection as it seems that only Melanie loves Helen because Helen appears to be the only nice one of the bunch (and looks like Gemma Arterton).

The opening moments of the film are strong, reminiscent of 12 YEARS A SLAVE in sound design with the effective thumping of metal doors slamming that pulsates the sparse cold surroundings of Melanie’s home, a permanent fog of foreboding that is effectively unnerving.

The film is intelligent because it treats the audience intelligently. There’s no hand holding as we’re dropped into this world that is familiar in some ways (accents, locations and Marks and Spencer) but distinctly different. It’s an interesting way to start a film for both fans of the book and viewers entering fresh. There are some bold and smart directional choices on show here, the most being the strive for refined rather than bombastic filmmaking. We care about these flawed individuals surviving, not a spectacle of nameless destruction. Emotionally and aesthetically the film is small and it works better for being that way. Maybe for budgetary reasons the films sticks to realism a la 28 DAYS LATER rather than flashy CGI (there are CGI aerial views of a desecrated London that look a little ropey). In keeping the film more low-key shall we say, an added sense of terror that this reality could actually be reality is more than a little unnerving.

There’s plenty of gore but it’s not exploitative goryness. It’s enough to keep horror fans satisfied but not too much that it all starts slip into ridiculousness as a lot of horrors tend to do. To the film from being too bleak or one note there are also a few moments of levity and endearment in particular with Melanie discovering the world outside of her childhood prison (who knew cat flaps could be so fun?!).

The strength of the film is its drama, in particular the performances. There are strong contributions from Glenn Close as the relentless Dr Caldwell, Paddy Considine is solid as Sergeant Parks who’s relationship to Melanie, more precisely how it progresses (and why he was so hostile to her in the first place) is particularly poignant. But special runner-up mention should go to Gemma Arterton who makes a fine Helen Justineau and who portrays her fractured affection for Melanie so well. In some ways Arterton’s Helen is an audience surrograte – loving Melanie but fearful of her at the same time. There’s an obvious closeness Arterton and Nanua that goes beyond the simple surrogate mother-daughter dynamic and adds layers of nuance and conflicting emotion that makes the ending (which I won’t spoil) that much more unsettling and eternally fascinating.
But it’s really about the seasoned performers supporting newcomer Sennia Nanua her moment as she takes centre stage. Her lead performance essentially carrying the film (as she’s in nearly every scene) Nanua gives an assured and richly naunced portrayal of Melanie. Nanua’s Melanie is both innocent, childlike, precocious and terrifying which is a near-perfect translation of Melanie’s consciousness in the novel. Like a tiger, you’ll find yourself rooting for her and her hopefulness as she comes to terms with her tragic existence and envisions something good coming of it, while also having intense moments of  wanting to get the hell away from her. This might be why there were belly laughs during this exchange

MELANIE: Pretend you’re scared of me!
SERGEANT PARKS: Pretend?

Basically if you like 28 Days Later, then Girl With All The Gifts is for you (and it has a better ending too). If you didn’t like the former, then still give the latter a chance, you  might be surprised. A well-made home grown horror is a gem indeed.

The Girl With All The Gifts is currently in cinemas across the nation.