Warning: spoilers abound!
Yes, I watched a zombie movie during a pandemic. Don’t judge me.
You know, at first this movie really confused me. Why is a military base treating children like criminals? Why are they bothering teaching these kids if they’re so scared of them? How is this a zombie movie?
Well, turns out these kids are second generation zombies that are mostly human until they get a whiff of human flesh. Then it’s full on zombie mode! And the one kid we follow through the movie is a girl named Melanie - you know, the girl with all the gifts.
I hate that I wrote that. And with a title like that, I was definitely expecting her to be the only human-like zombie, but that... wasn’t the case at all.
Anyway, after the base gets overwhelmed by zombie-zombies, Melanie ends up in the company of some soldiers, her teacher (aka her favorite human ever), and a scientist that’s pretty hellbent on killing her to get a vaccine. Yeah, that’s not traumatizing at all! But it’s awesome that the scientist gets her comeuppance in the end, especially when Melanie drops this line: “Why should it be us who die for you?” Badass.
And she says that right before setting fire to a giant fungus so it releases spores to turn all the remaining humans into zombies. Gotta say, a fungus being the infectious agent in a zombie movie is a new one for me - most of the time it’s way more vague. Another cool thing is that, at some point, the humans developed a “blocking gel” to hide their scent.
In the end, the only human that survived was the teacher and that’s because she stayed inside an airtight container when the spores were released. Honestly, kinda feel bad for her because she has to spend the rest of her life entirely inside - she doesn’t even have the option of leaving (no, that’s not reflective of my feelings right now, shut up). But at least she can keep teaching second-generation zombies, both from the base and the ones found in the city. Though I am left wondering how Melanie managed to get them all there.
8/10
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