The life of Maggie, a young teenager girl, who after being attacked by a zombie, has been infected with a deadly virus that transforms her into a cannibal, has been turned upside down, but her father stands by her to recover.
Ultimately, neither the brain-eating genre or the heart-breaking one is enhanced by this mash-up. Like Celine Dion's cover of AC/DC's You Shook Me All Night Long, file it under the category of "interesting-but-why?"
I feel some guilt in giving a film that tries this hard a negative review. But I couldn't shake my sense of aggravation at how it all plays out, especially in Schwarzenegger's case.
Maggie's power lies with its characters and the moving performances from its two leads; it's a fresh new angle at a genre that is proving to be timeless.
It's a sad story, or would be if the zombie apocalypse backdrop - and the inky splotches creeping across Maggie's body - didn't wreak such havoc with the movie's unsmiling sincerity.
The problem, aside from not much going on, is that Schwarzenegger remains a severely limited actor, so there's not that much character to study. Potentially interesting concept; wrong star.
In his best performance of the post-Governator era, Arnold Schwarzenegger stars ... in a film that eschews traditional zombie movie expectations in favour of a more character-driven drama.
Maggie is beautifully shot. Hobson and director of photography Lukas Ettlin make excellent use of natural lighting to create a mood of disaster and despair.