Just when you thought the zombie genre was out of ideas, along comes Colm McCarthy's smart and engaging The Girl with All the Gifts, a film with echoes of George A. Romero, Danny Boyle, and Robert Kirkman.
The Girl with All the Gifts resists the temptation to become a young adult reimagining of 28 Days Later, instead emerging as an effectively atmospheric and often grisly horror film.
The Girl with All the Gifts starts off with quite a lot of potential in its first act, but unfortunately the story is taken in a clichéd, bland, and rather silly direction that results in an ultimately unsatisfying and quickly forgettable zombie outing.
Shows like The Walking Dead reign over The Girl With All The Gifts because the breakdown of society, how people fully function within it is the core of the story.
It's a film for people who thought they never needed to sit through another zombie flick. It's also quite likely the strangest entry that will ever appear on Glenn Close's IMDB page.
The innovation of Girl is that Melanie is, in fact, a monster... Horror films are best when they borrow from and reflect reality. There isn't anything scarier than truth; dig it.