I never really worried about the zombie apocalypse. I always figured I could handle myself if I got my hands on some good guns and silencers. I live in Indiana, so it wouldn't be very hard to get guns. As for the silencer, I'd have to put the potato on the barrel like OG Bobby Johnson. What I hadn't considered is, cute zombies. If they're kid zombies and they still look like people, and they're cute enough to make you go "awww," I am screwed because I won't take them seriously.
The film revolves around Melanie. She's an average girl, and a zombie. Did I mention all of the children are zombies? The zombies are created by a fungal growth in the brain but effects the children differently. So they act like normal children. Then they get hungry and they have a craving for flesh, which is why they're called hungries. The children are educated like normal children while they're secretly experimented on to find a cure.
Things go wild when the fences fall at the military base and it is overrun with hungries. Melanie escapes along with a few others who are left stranded in the city. They restrain Melanie and use her to hunt safe passage. Along the way she's told the world is over for humans if they take over and eventually she decides that it isn't over for everyone.
The movie touches me because Melanie is just a normal kid and has fun playing with a cat. Then she gets hungry and eats it. Later she's asked of she wants a cat and her only response is "I already had one." It's hilarious in moments like that. Melanie is just a kid but she's also a zombie and the two conflict. She might not want to beat up feral children but she will.
It's strange because there's essentially a humanization of zombies, or hungries, that just doesn't happen elsewhere. Melanie feels herself getting hungry and yells for people to get away because she has to eat to survive but it's not what she wants to do. At one point Melanie's teacher Ms. Justineu recalls a storie Melanie had written only to be told "it's not like my story because the girl in my story doesn't eat people." That humanization goes a long way. At one point Melanie is excited to wear her new clothes only to later realize she had eaten and covered them in blood.
It's a lot of pressure to put on a young zombie girl but she was forced to decide the fate of humanity. She decided to let humanity die out and rebuild with feral children. That's just a lot to take in and it's beautifully scripted how she comes to the decision. Really it boils down to Melanie wondering why her life should be worth less than the life of someone else. She doesn't want to hurt anyone but she doesn't want to die either. So much of this film is about the struggle of what Melanie is versus what she wants to be and that is the scary part of the film. The idea that you can never choose who you want to be and you can never purge the darkest part of you no matter how much you try fighting to keep it under the surface.
I could go on an on all day about this film. Without doubt it is the best zombie film I've ever seen. It's something I'm sure I'll go back and racist because there's lots of stuff to uncover. There's tons of theories on the film and the book series it was based on. Even if you hate zombie films, you need to check this one out.
You should buy Darrell's Book, watch him on the Blerds Online YouTube Channel or The CP Time and Powerbomb Jutsu podcasts.
