‘Girl with All the Gifts’ Review: Glenn Close and a Headstrong Zombie Kid Face the End of the World

The last commercial gasp of the zombie trend offers gore and a surprisingly clear-eyed message about survival

The film industry took to it with dollar signs in its eyes and did what any proper horde of undead would do: they consumed all but the bones and gristle before leaving the genre to television’s ongoing custody.

Melanie (newcomer Sennia Nanua) is a “Hungry,” one of countless victims of a fungal infection that has wiped out most of the world’s human population and turned them into roving, screeching cannibals.

When a huge band of Hungries attacks the compound, Melanie, Caldwell and Helen escape alongside a military commander (Paddy Considine) and a friendly guard (Fisayo Akinade, “Cucumber”).

Director Colm McCarthy (“Peaky Blinders”) alongside screenwriter Carey, adapting his own novel, feel like genuine collaborators, the script and direction prioritizing deep characterizations — not always guaranteed in the world of zombie movies — and a sense of genuine care and empathy.

[...] she spends a good portion of the film covered in viscera, her face and shirt smeared a clumpy red as though she were a normal little girl who simply binged on too many jelly donuts.

If zombies are a cultural response to the shared fear of humankind’s worst tendencies toward self-destruction — a theme non-zombie cinema will probably explore pretty extensively in the next four years — and if narratives of the living dead need hopeful resolutions to send audiences home a little less afraid of the future, then “Girl with All the Gifts” offers an unsettling departure from cliché.