Once a month, Kelly dares Jessica to watch a film surrounding the monthly theme. These challenges are meant to scare, or unsettle, Jessica, and broaden her horror horizons.
KELLY:
It's Black History Month here at Spinsters of Horror and though I had initially picked out TWO movies for Jess to squeal over, I decided to give her a much needed break due to our festival appearance. I chose The Girl with all the Gifts because Jess doesn't care for zombie films so I wanted to show her that some zombie films are quite compelling, which this one generally is. It garnered a lot of fan fare from the horror community and I think it is an interesting, refreshing take on the zombie subgenre and it also stars a young, black lead, Sennia Nanua. ENJOY!
JESSICA:
Kelly was right, I loved this film! I don't really enjoy zombie movies as I find the genre has become over saturated in the last 10 years often losing its social commentary to just gives graphic zombie kills and scares. However, The Girl With All The Gifts was refreshing for me. It beautifully blended zombie horror with science fiction that not only gave me the chills but also moved me. It probably helps that we are currently living a global pandemic with our lives being controlled and changed due to the airborne (mutating) virus, not very different from the fungal brain affection that turns humans into 'hungries'. Could this be our future after COVID? Who knows, and that is what makes movies of these nature not only terrifying, but fascinating to me. So much is happening in this film, not only as maybe a foreshadowing to our future, but also a strong commentary on our past around racism due to slavery and the steps toward liberation through civil rights. Sienna's performance is so poignant throughout that I enjoyed every moment watching her on screen as Melanie becoming an advocate not only for global evolution but societal change.
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