This past September I read M.R. Carey’s The Girl With All the Gifts and was pleasantly surprised. Not only did I wind up enjoying the book, but I also respected the author’s desire to take some artistic liberties with one of the most common horror themes in this day and age: the zombie apocalypse.
As I mentioned when I reviewed the book, I don’t really want to give a ton of details away concerning the actual plot to the story. Some things are best left unsaid, and I certainly wouldn’t want to ruin the surprise. 😉
What I will tell you, is that the film follows a group of survivors in a world ravaged by “hungries”. Yep, it’s another movie where we don’t dare to utter “the Z word”, but that’s okay since these zombies aren’t exactly what you’re used to seeing anyway.
The remaining humans are from various walks of life with different experiences that make them who they are today, though I’ll admit that the film doesn’t go into this as much as it does in the book. I think this is the sort of movie that perhaps benefits from its viewers having read the book beforehand when it comes to character backstories.
Overall, I enjoyed the film. It stuck pretty well to the events of the novel, but opted to cut out some of the parts that made the book drag at times which was nice. As much as I, along with a few of my friends, liked the book we all agreed that there were a few parts that seemed to just take too long. It was nice that the movie did not suffer the same fate. One thing that some viewers might not like is that most of the characters did not match the book’s descriptions of them in the slightest. It didn’t bother me though since I liked all of the performances, especially that of young actress, Sennia Nanua as Melanie. Glenn Close also did a great job as the complex character of a doctor who is willing to do whatever it takes to save humanity, even things that make her peers question how humane she really is.
IgnitedMoth 
Been looking forward to watching this film, I do love Zombie flicks and Paddy Considine is a great actor. Thanks for sharing, my friend 🙂
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Yeah, I really was too. I’d wanted to see it months ago but they didn’t release it anywhere near me that I found and then they spontaneously played it at a theater this weekend that wasn’t too far from where I live, so I lucked out this time. 🙂
Paddy Considine was good in this, I’ll definitely have to check out some of his other movies. I didn’t know who he was, but apparently he was in Hot Fuzz but it’s been a while since I watched it so I can’t remember that much of it.
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He was one of the two “Andys” in Hot Fuzz, damn I love that movie, and it was filmed about 30 miles away from where I live! 🙂
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Ah, gotcha! 🙂 That’s really cool that it was filmed fairly locally to you!
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Glad to see the slower parts of the book were cut! I kind of regret never finishing it, but I hit one of those slow spots and just never went back.
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lol Yeah, that’s definitely understandable. It’s never fun getting through a bunch of slow parts of books. It makes reading feel like a chore and there are just too many awesome things to be read out there to bother with something that feels like a homework assignment. lol
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I haven’t read, nor have I seen the movie but I bloody well want to do both now hehe. The book, in my opinion, is often better than the movie. Jurassic Park comes to mind. I wonder why movies don’t just call them zombies? Why is it such a taboo word? It’d be like having a romantic comedy movie but not mentioning the word “love”. Actually, that would be kind of cool. I can’t promise I’ll read the book as it seems that, these days, when I sit down to read I end up nodding off. I tend to burn the candles at both ends, early mornings and very late nights. I will endeavour to watch the movie though. I love zom… errr Walker/hungries/undead movies. Dawn of the Dead (2004) being my absolute favourite!!
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lol Nice! 🙂 I’m glad you want to see the movie. If you wind up checking it out I’d love to hear what you thought of it. Yeah, it is funny how they never use the Z word in zombie flicks. I like your romantic comedy idea where they never use the word “love”. lol
And yeah, books are pretty much always better than the movies. 😀
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Hi
I’ve watched the whole thing now. I did enjoy it but the first half was better than the second. Glen Close was great in it but the little girl was my favourite. She played the role perfectly. The one scene I found a bit comical though was when she was growling at all the other kids. All up though I really enjoyed it. 3 1/2 stars out of 5.
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Hey, thanks for getting back to me with your thoughts on the movie now that you’ve finished it! Yeah, I can totally see what you mean. Glenn Close was very good, but the little girl definitely stole the show in a good way. It’s hard to believe she’s such a new actress and gave such a solid performance. 🙂
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A lot of child actors are great and I often wonder if it’s because they’re just good at pretend games. That, or they don’t worry so much how they come across.
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