Directed by: Colm McCarthy
Written By: Mike Carey
Starring: Gemma Atherton, Paddy Considine, Glenn Close, Sennia Nanua
1 hour, 51 minutes.
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Melanie is a young girl of around twelve who wakes up in a cell. Guards come in and wheel her out to be with dozens of other similarly-dressed children, all strapped down to wheelchairs. The guards are careful and afraid of these children. These children are smart and seem to have excellent memories. The children don’t seem to realize they are actually prisoners.
The guard comes into the classroom, angry that the teacher touched Melanie’s hair. He spits on his own arm, and many of the children get all grabby and bitey, like rabid animals. Melanie talks back to the head guard, and gets left in her restraints all night as a reward. When the teacher, Helen, open the door and lets Melanie out of those restrains, Melanie goes berserk and tries to eat her.
The guard takes Melanie out of her cell in the morning and takes her outside. Melanie sees what the real world is like for the first time. They are all in a military compound, and it’s surrounded on all sides by zombies. She’s being taken to Dr. Caldwell’s lab, where they plan to dissect her. She literally sees some of the other children’s brains in jars on a shelf.
Helen breaks in to rescue Melanie, but she is stopped. Just then, an alarm goes off; the base has been breached. Seconds later, Dr. Caldwell’s assistant is bitten and turns crazy, and Melanie is left alone with a room full of zombies.
Melanie goes rabid and eats two guards, but then the teacher grabs her and runs off with her. They hop into the head guard’s truck and drive off. Melanie is infected with the same disease as “The Hungries,” but since she was born infected, she can think and somewhat control it, which makes her unique.
Can they get to safety? Will Dr. Caldwell eventually dissect Melanie? Will they find a cure and save the world? Who’s the real villain here?
Commentary
Sennia Nanua is excellent in the role as Melanie; it’s rare to find child actors that aren’t annoying. Glenn Close is just evil through and through here. Some of the aerial scenes of abandoned towns are actually drone footage of the area around Chernobyl (been seeing a lot of that lately), which adds a lot to the ambience. The giant fungus tree and the feral children are very cool ideas that are mostly unique to this film. Actually, the whole world created in this story is fascinating, and I’d love to see a sequel.