A gunman police said killed five people in a Washington state mall remained at large Saturday as authorities appealed for help in identifying the suspect but said there were no indications the slayings north of Seattle were a terrorist act. (Sept. 24) AP
A day after five people were shot dead in a Burlington, Wash., mall, authorities arrested a man they say was behind the rampage.
The suspect, identified as 20-year-old Arcan Cetin of Oak Harbor, Wash., was taken into custody around 7 p.m. PT Saturday in Oak Harbor, roughly 29 miles southwest of Burlington.
Lt. Mike Hawley, Island County Sheriff’s Office, said deputies spotted the car near their office in Oak Harbor Saturday night, but no one was inside.
“I saw an individual walking northbound on the sidewalk and I instantly recognized that this is the person that I just viewed on my computer,” Hawley said.
“He said nothing,” Hawley added. “He was kind of zombie-like.”
More on the mall shooting:
Cetin was not armed at the time of his arrest. He had a computer in a bag he was carrying at the time.
Police impounded his car but are awaiting search warrants before taking a closer look.
Police say tips from the public helped them arrest Cetin Saturday, after a manhunt of more than 20 hours. They distributed blurry photos of the suspect online and asked the public for help identifying him.
No evidence pointed to terrorism, Michael Knutson, assistant special agent in charge of the Seattle FBI, said at the news conference late Saturday night. Authorities believe he is the only shooter.Authorities describe Cetin is a young resident of Oak Harbor who immigrated from Turkey.
He “is a legal, permanent resident of the United States,” said Chris Cammock, lieutenant of the Mount Vernon Police Department.
The exact motive behind the shooting that killed four women and a man in a Macy’s store remains unclear, but authorities say Cetin’s ex-girlfriend used to work at the store. However, she has not worked there in several months and now lives in another county.
The Seattle Times reports that Cetin’s criminal record includes three assault charges related to domestic violence, the victim being Cetin’s stepfather. Cetin also was arrested on a drunken driving charge, the Times reports.
A judge told Cetin Dec. 29 he could not possess a firearm, according to the Times. His stepfather convinced the judge not to impose a no-contact order. He said his stepson was “going through a hard time.”
Surveillance footage from the mall captured the suspect entering the building late Friday without a weapon but walking into Macy’s 10 minutes later with what appeared to be a “hunting-style” rifle, police said. He opened fire in the makeup area, then fled on foot out of range of cameras.
The four female victims died at the scene. The male victim died later at Harborview Medical Center.
One of the victims is a 16-year-old girl who beat cancer, the Seattle Times and KOMO-TV reports.
Sarai Lara was shopping for pants Friday night at the mall with her younger sister, her mother, Evangelina Lara, told the Seattle Times through a translator. They got split up.
Evangelina Lara said she learned at 2 a.m. Saturday her daughter was among the five victims.
Snohomish County Court said one of the victims was Belinda Galde, a longtime probation officer, KOMO-TV and NY Daily News reports.
Gov. Jay Inslee released a statement late Friday on Twitter expressing his condolences and prayers to those affected by the shootings.
“Tragedy has struck in Washington tonight,” Inslee wrote on Twitter. “Trudi and I send our condolences to the families of the victims and prayers for anyone injured. Stay close to friends and loved ones as we await more information and, hopefully, news of the suspect’s capture.”
Using 11 search teams and two K-9 units, Skagit County authorities went shop to shop to clear the 434,000-square-foot mall in Burlington, about 65 miles north of Seattle. Authorities distributed blurry photos of the suspect online and asked the public for help in identifying him.
Contributing: Charles Ventura, USA TODAY, from Los Angeles; KING-TV; Associated Press.
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Review: 'The Girl With All The Gifts' Is the Best Zombie Movie of … – The Daily Dot
September 25th, 2016
After a summer of lackluster franchise sequels, British zombie movie The Girl With All The Gifts is a breath of fresh air. Making incredibly good use of its $5.2 million budget, it could be the rightful heir to 28 Days Later.
Written by comic book author Mike Carey (Lucifer, Hellblazer) and directed by Colm McCarthy (Peaky Blinders, Sherlock), The Girl With All The Gifts has an unusual origin story. Instead of being a straight adaptation of Carey’s 2014 novel of the same name, he wrote the screenplay and the book at the same time. Against all the odds, both turned out great: The novel was well received by critics, and the film is a deliciously tense and clever twist on classic zombie tropes.
The girl from the title is Melanie (Sennia Nanua), an alarmingly upbeat inmate in a post-apocalyptic bunker, where a class of children are kept locked in cells and transported by wheelchair to their daily lessons with Miss Justineau (Gemma Arterton), a kind of dystopian future Mary Poppins.
It slowly becomes apparent that Melanie and her classmates are infected with the same zombie fungus that destroyed human civilization outside, but there’s something different about the children. Instead of being mindless monsters, they’re dormant. They only act like zombies when exposed to bodily fluids, and the scientists in the facility are hoping this mutation could hold the key to a vaccine. The kids aren’t prisoners, they’re lab rats.
[embedded content]
The Girl With All The Gifts relies on classic zombie horror tropes for its tense thriller atmosphere, but it stands out due to its thoughtful concept and unique protagonist. Another film might have spent more time prevaricating about Melanie’s personhood, but it’s clear from the beginning that she isn’t a monster in disguise, she’s just a (relatively) normal girl with a horrifying disease. Her main struggle is to maintain a sense of self while the adults in the bunker make every effort to dehumanize her.
Some characters like Sergeant Parks (Paddy Considine) are actively cruel to the children, while the scientist Dr. Caldwell (Glenn Close) views them with chilly detachment. But even this is more complex than it seems, because their coldness is borne of self-preservation. They can’t allow themselves to form relationships with the children, because they might have to shoot one at any moment.
Melanie is an outlier because she makes a daily effort to be as friendly and cheerful as possible, even as the guards strap her into a wheelchair with a gun to her head. Everyone except Miss Justineau finds this creepy as hell, either because they view Melanie as a monster, or simply because Melanie shouldn’t be so happy when she’s living in Hell. This is the point where the film’s casting choices feel especially relevant: not only are three of the four lead characters female—still a rarity in genre movies—but the narrative is built around powerful adults being terrified and threatened by the body and humanity of a young black girl.
The Girl With All The Gifts
Even alongside experienced actors like Glenn Close, 13-year-old Sennia Nanua is the true star, from her lovable childlike moments to her haunting microexpressions when Melanie realizes she’s about to go feral. There’s a constant tension between Melanie’s innocent love for Miss Justineau, and the knowledge that something could go wrong at any moment.
The Girl With All The Gifts manages the rare feat of finding a new direction among the familiar elements of a zombie story, reframing the apocalyptic outbreak as a kind of Darwinian conflict where the desperate, cruel humans may not actually deserve to survive. And without spoiling any later plot twists, we can say that it does go somewhere interesting with these ideas.
The film’s low budget is occasionally noticeable during special effects shots, but this only serves to highlight how much can be done with a good idea and an excellent cast. It’s miles ahead of recent mainstream offerings like World War Z and Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, making it more like the Ex Machina of the zombie genre.
The Girl With All The Gifts is out in the U.K. on Sept.23, and at festival screenings in the U.S.
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Kids with Down syndrome produce, star in their own zombie flick – New York Daily News
September 25th, 2016
In the early 21st century it is not uncommon to find two college age buddies who, having watched exactly enough YouTube videos, decide they could do a way better job of making a zombie movie. So they do.
Heck, there may even be a YouTube channel of college bro zombie flicks. (Please let that not be true.)
What is not common: To have a world premiere, get interviewed by Conan O’Brien, walk the red carpet at the NYC screening, and take their movie, “Spring Break Zombie Massacre,” on a tour of North American film festivals, including the upcoming Telluride Horror Show in Colorado.
Also not common: For the two filmmakers to have Down syndrome, which Sam Suchmann, 20, and and Mattie Zufelt, 21, do. This genetic condition — in which abnormal cell division causes individuals to have an extra chromosome — causes intellectual disability and sometimes health problems such as heart defects, hearing loss and celiac disease.
Mom: OK for doctors to include abortion in Down syndrome talk
But Rhode Island natives Sam and Mattie, as they’re known by the legion of friends, admirers and mentors, are adamant they don’t want others judging them or limiting them just because they happen to have an extra chromosome.
Zufelt and Suchmann on the set of their debut “Spring Break Zombie Massacre.”
(Courtesy Edelman Digital)
“It’s important to just be yourself and not let anyone tell you you’re different, or treat you in a different way,” Suchmann says earnestly, sporting a black tank and a tattoo that reads “Rock On Go Wild.”
“I’m past the point of caring what anyone thinks I can or can’t do. There are a lot of people in the world that suck.”
And some that don’t. The idea for the film was born back in 2011, when Suchmann, then a senior in high school, started doodling on a sketch pad when he was bored in art class. He and Zufelt ended up with a storybook that had an entire plot line.
Donald Trump hat tossed from Down sydnrome auction
“We both love zombie movies and after watching a zombie video on YouTube, we thought we could make a better one,” he said. Then he showed it to his older brother, Jesse.
The young men also star in the film.
(Courtesy Edelman Digital)
“I was so impressed at how well thought out it was,” Jessie recalls. “Ninety-five percent of the final film is exactly what was on that piece of paper.”
Jessie, a creative director at PR firm Edelman, launched a Kickstarter campaign in 2014 that raised about $70,000, then asked his own high school pal (and filmmaker Bobby Carnevale) to sign on as director. The 45-minute movie was shot last summer in Rhode Island, with actors including both typical performers and others with intellectual disabilities.
The film itself is your garden variety teen slasher movie: Zombies racing around devouring buxom skimpily clad girls in short shorts and bikinis with Sam and Mattie swanning around shooting at them in “Miami Vice”-style white suits.
Olivia Wilde stars in controversial Down syndrome PSA
But at some points, the plot goes a step further. In one early scene, the boys befriend another high schooler who is being tormented by his classmates.
Zufelt, 21, and Suchmann, 20, on the red carpet of the New York City premiere of their film “Spring Break Zombie Massacre.”
(Kendall Rodriguez)
“We really wanted to address bullying,” Suchmann says, adding that he was bullied at various times in middle school and high school by other kids who made fun of how he looked and stole things from him. “I sat in front of my TV crying getting fat.”
Zufelt has a different perspective.
“Sometimes I was the bully,” he says. “I wanted to fit in and hang out with the cool kids. And then I met Sam at a Special Olympics and he was such a great guy to hang out with. I was done bullying. I had a friend.”
Mi. water boy with Down Syndrome scores first touchdown
And, aforementioned short shorts and bikinis aside, they wanted to include another message: girl power.
Zufelt and Scuhmann are begging for blood stains in their all-white outfits in a scene from “Spring Break Zombie Massacre.”
(Courtesy Edelman Digital)
Mattie’s girlfriend, played by stunner Madeline Brumby, periodically punches out zombies and even pulls out an undead heart and saves the day.
The feminist angle came from director Peter Farrelly, who was able to get a sneak peek at the script and offer suggestions at one of the Special Olympics world games. But they say their minds were already there, eager to convey how strong girls can be, as well as speak out against violence against women that routinely happens on college spring breaks.
“When the zombies attack women, we wanted to give the message that it’s not OK to rape women, that spring break should be more about nonviolence and having a great time,” says Zufelt.
Sara Weir, president of the National Down Syndrome Society, who attended the NYC premiere, said the film really fosters the message of inclusion and NDSS’ “more alike than different” motto.
Suchmann answers a question during a Q&A after the screening of the film.
(Kendall Rodriguez)
“These are two 21-year-old guys who had a dream of becoming movie producers and saw it through,” says Weir. “They had 100% decision making authority about what they would and would not put in the film, they were involved in the fund-raising and they played various parts. Yes, they had support, but every other 21-year-old also has that when they’re first starting out.”
Right now both men — who graduated from high school — are at a transition academy where they learn life skills such as how to ride a bus alone and how to polish up a resume.
And, of course, a sequel is in the works, as is a doc on the making of the film. Meanwhile, their families are in the midst of creating a nonprofit group to help others with intellectual disabilities achieve their creative dreams.
“People with disabilities are still so marginalized, but there’s an incredible amount of talent out there,” says Chris Suchmann, Sam’s dad. “There are so few job opportunities for them, that we want to come up with new ones in a fun, creative way.”
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Review: 'The Girl With All The Gifts' Is the Best Zombie Movie of 2016 – The Daily Dot
September 24th, 2016
After a summer of lackluster franchise sequels, British zombie movie The Girl With All The Gifts is a breath of fresh air. Making incredibly good use of its $5.2 million budget, it could be the rightful heir to 28 Days Later.
Written by comic book author Mike Carey (Lucifer, Hellblazer) and directed by Colm McCarthy (Peaky Blinders, Sherlock), The Girl With All The Gifts has an unusual origin story. Instead of being a straight adaptation of Carey’s 2014 novel of the same name, he wrote the screenplay and the book at the same time. Against all the odds, both turned out great: The novel was well received by critics, and the film is a deliciously tense and clever twist on classic zombie tropes.
The girl from the title is Melanie (Sennia Nanua), an alarmingly upbeat inmate in a post-apocalyptic bunker, where a class of children are kept locked in cells and transported by wheelchair to their daily lessons with Miss Justineau (Gemma Arterton), a kind of dystopian future Mary Poppins.
It slowly becomes apparent that Melanie and her classmates are infected with the same zombie fungus that destroyed human civilization outside, but there’s something different about the children. Instead of being mindless monsters, they’re dormant. They only act like zombies when exposed to bodily fluids, and the scientists in the facility are hoping this mutation could hold the key to a vaccine. The kids aren’t prisoners, they’re lab rats.
[embedded content]
The Girl With All The Gifts relies on classic zombie horror tropes for its tense thriller atmosphere, but it stands out due to its thoughtful concept and unique protagonist. Another film might have spent more time prevaricating about Melanie’s personhood, but it’s clear from the beginning that she isn’t a monster in disguise, she’s just a (relatively) normal girl with a horrifying disease. Her main struggle is to maintain a sense of self while the adults in the bunker make every effort to dehumanize her.
Some characters like Sergeant Parks (Paddy Considine) are actively cruel to the children, while the scientist Dr. Caldwell (Glenn Close) views them with chilly detachment. But even this is more complex than it seems, because their coldness is borne of self-preservation. They can’t allow themselves to form relationships with the children, because they might have to shoot one at any moment.
Melanie is an outlier because she makes a daily effort to be as friendly and cheerful as possible, even as the guards strap her into a wheelchair with a gun to her head. Everyone except Miss Justineau finds this creepy as hell, either because they view Melanie as a monster, or simply because Melanie shouldn’t be so happy when she’s living in Hell. This is the point where the film’s casting choices feel especially relevant: not only are three of the four lead characters female—still a rarity in genre movies—but the narrative is built around powerful adults being terrified and threatened by the body and humanity of a young black girl.
The Girl With All The Gifts
Even alongside experienced actors like Glenn Close, 13-year-old Sennia Nanua is the true star, from her lovable childlike moments to her haunting microexpressions when Melanie realizes she’s about to go feral. There’s a constant tension between Melanie’s innocent love for Miss Justineau, and the knowledge that something could go wrong at any moment.
The Girl With All The Gifts manages the rare feat of finding a new direction among the familiar elements of a zombie story, reframing the apocalyptic outbreak as a kind of Darwinian conflict where the desperate, cruel humans may not actually deserve to survive. And without spoiling any later plot twists, we can say that it does go somewhere interesting with these ideas.
The film’s low budget is occasionally noticeable during special effects shots, but this only serves to highlight how much can be done with a good idea and an excellent cast. It’s miles ahead of recent mainstream offerings like World War Z and Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, making it more like the Ex Machina of the zombie genre.
The Girl With All The Gifts is out in the U.K. on Sept.23, and at festival screenings in the U.S.
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Review: 'The Girl With All The Gifts' Is the Best Zombie Movie of 2016 – The Daily Dot
September 24th, 2016
After a summer of lackluster franchise sequels, British zombie movie The Girl With All The Gifts is a breath of fresh air. Making incredibly good use of its $5.2 million budget, it could be the rightful heir to 28 Days Later.
Written by comic book author Mike Carey (Lucifer, Hellblazer) and directed by Colm McCarthy (Peaky Blinders, Sherlock), The Girl With All The Gifts has an unusual origin story. Instead of being a straight adaptation of Carey’s 2014 novel of the same name, he wrote the screenplay and the book at the same time. Against all the odds, both turned out great: The novel was well received by critics, and the film is a deliciously tense and clever twist on classic zombie tropes.
The girl from the title is Melanie (Sennia Nanua), an alarmingly upbeat inmate in a post-apocalyptic bunker, where a class of children are kept locked in cells and transported by wheelchair to their daily lessons with Miss Justineau (Gemma Arterton), a kind of dystopian future Mary Poppins.
It slowly becomes apparent that Melanie and her classmates are infected with the same zombie fungus that destroyed human civilization outside, but there’s something different about the children. Instead of being mindless monsters, they’re dormant. They only act like zombies when exposed to bodily fluids, and the scientists in the facility are hoping this mutation could hold the key to a vaccine. The kids aren’t prisoners, they’re lab rats.
[embedded content]
The Girl With All The Gifts relies on classic zombie horror tropes for its tense thriller atmosphere, but it stands out due to its thoughtful concept and unique protagonist. Another film might have spent more time prevaricating about Melanie’s personhood, but it’s clear from the beginning that she isn’t a monster in disguise, she’s just a (relatively) normal girl with a horrifying disease. Her main struggle is to maintain a sense of self while the adults in the bunker make every effort to dehumanize her.
Some characters like Sergeant Parks (Paddy Considine) are actively cruel to the children, while the scientist Dr. Caldwell (Glenn Close) views them with chilly detachment. But even this is more complex than it seems, because their coldness is borne of self-preservation. They can’t allow themselves to form relationships with the children, because they might have to shoot one at any moment.
Melanie is an outlier because she makes a daily effort to be as friendly and cheerful as possible, even as the guards strap her into a wheelchair with a gun to her head. Everyone except Miss Justineau finds this creepy as hell, either because they view Melanie as a monster, or simply because Melanie shouldn’t be so happy when she’s living in Hell. This is the point where the film’s casting choices feel especially relevant: not only are three of the four lead characters female—still a rarity in genre movies—but the narrative is built around powerful adults being terrified and threatened by the body and humanity of a young black girl.
The Girl With All The Gifts
Even alongside experienced actors like Glenn Close, 13-year-old Sennia Nanua is the true star, from her lovable childlike moments to her haunting microexpressions when Melanie realizes she’s about to go feral. There’s a constant tension between Melanie’s innocent love for Miss Justineau, and the knowledge that something could go wrong at any moment.
The Girl With All The Gifts manages the rare feat of finding a new direction among the familiar elements of a zombie story, reframing the apocalyptic outbreak as a kind of Darwinian conflict where the desperate, cruel humans may not actually deserve to survive. And without spoiling any later plot twists, we can say that it does go somewhere interesting with these ideas.
The film’s low budget is occasionally noticeable during special effects shots, but this only serves to highlight how much can be done with a good idea and an excellent cast. It’s miles ahead of recent mainstream offerings like World War Z and Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, making it more like the Ex Machina of the zombie genre.
The Girl With All The Gifts is out in the U.K. on Sept.23, and at festival screenings in the U.S.
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Review: 'The Girl With All The Gifts' Is the Best Zombie Movie of 2016 – The Daily Dot
September 24th, 2016
After a summer of lackluster franchise sequels, British zombie movie The Girl With All The Gifts is a breath of fresh air. Making incredibly good use of its $5.2 million budget, it could be the rightful heir to 28 Days Later.
Written by comic book author Mike Carey (Lucifer, Hellblazer) and directed by Colm McCarthy (Peaky Blinders, Sherlock), The Girl With All The Gifts has an unusual origin story. Instead of being a straight adaptation of Carey’s 2014 novel of the same name, he wrote the screenplay and the book at the same time. Against all the odds, both turned out great: The novel was well received by critics, and the film is a deliciously tense and clever twist on classic zombie tropes.
The girl from the title is Melanie (Sennia Nanua), an alarmingly upbeat inmate in a post-apocalyptic bunker, where a class of children are kept locked in cells and transported by wheelchair to their daily lessons with Miss Justineau (Gemma Arterton), a kind of dystopian future Mary Poppins.
It slowly becomes apparent that Melanie and her classmates are infected with the same zombie fungus that destroyed human civilization outside, but there’s something different about the children. Instead of being mindless monsters, they’re dormant. They only act like zombies when exposed to bodily fluids, and the scientists in the facility are hoping this mutation could hold the key to a vaccine. The kids aren’t prisoners, they’re lab rats.
[embedded content]
The Girl With All The Gifts relies on classic zombie horror tropes for its tense thriller atmosphere, but it stands out due to its thoughtful concept and unique protagonist. Another film might have spent more time prevaricating about Melanie’s personhood, but it’s clear from the beginning that she isn’t a monster in disguise, she’s just a (relatively) normal girl with a horrifying disease. Her main struggle is to maintain a sense of self while the adults in the bunker make every effort to dehumanize her.
Some characters like Sergeant Parks (Paddy Considine) are actively cruel to the children, while the scientist Dr. Caldwell (Glenn Close) views them with chilly detachment. But even this is more complex than it seems, because their coldness is borne of self-preservation. They can’t allow themselves to form relationships with the children, because they might have to shoot one at any moment.
Melanie is an outlier because she makes a daily effort to be as friendly and cheerful as possible, even as the guards strap her into a wheelchair with a gun to her head. Everyone except Miss Justineau finds this creepy as hell, either because they view Melanie as a monster, or simply because Melanie shouldn’t be so happy when she’s living in Hell. This is the point where the film’s casting choices feel especially relevant: not only are three of the four lead characters female—still a rarity in genre movies—but the narrative is built around powerful adults being terrified and threatened by the body and humanity of a young black girl.
The Girl With All The Gifts
Even alongside experienced actors like Glenn Close, 13-year-old Sennia Nanua is the true star, from her lovable childlike moments to her haunting microexpressions when Melanie realizes she’s about to go feral. There’s a constant tension between Melanie’s innocent love for Miss Justineau, and the knowledge that something could go wrong at any moment.
The Girl With All The Gifts manages the rare feat of finding a new direction among the familiar elements of a zombie story, reframing the apocalyptic outbreak as a kind of Darwinian conflict where the desperate, cruel humans may not actually deserve to survive. And without spoiling any later plot twists, we can say that it does go somewhere interesting with these ideas.
The film’s low budget is occasionally noticeable during special effects shots, but this only serves to highlight how much can be done with a good idea and an excellent cast. It’s miles ahead of recent mainstream offerings like World War Z and Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, making it more like the Ex Machina of the zombie genre.
The Girl With All The Gifts is out in the U.K. on Sept.23, and at festival screenings in the U.S.
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Review: 'The Girl With All The Gifts' Is the Best Zombie Movie of 2016 – The Daily Dot
September 24th, 2016
After a summer of lackluster franchise sequels, British zombie movie The Girl With All The Gifts is a breath of fresh air. Making incredibly good use of its $5.2 million budget, it could be the rightful heir to 28 Days Later.
Written by comic book author Mike Carey (Lucifer, Hellblazer) and directed by Colm McCarthy (Peaky Blinders, Sherlock), The Girl With All The Gifts has an unusual origin story. Instead of being a straight adaptation of Carey’s 2014 novel of the same name, he wrote the screenplay and the book at the same time. Against all the odds, both turned out great: The novel was well received by critics, and the film is a deliciously tense and clever twist on classic zombie tropes.
The girl from the title is Melanie (Sennia Nanua), an alarmingly upbeat inmate in a post-apocalyptic bunker, where a class of children are kept locked in cells and transported by wheelchair to their daily lessons with Miss Justineau (Gemma Arterton), a kind of dystopian future Mary Poppins.
It slowly becomes apparent that Melanie and her classmates are infected with the same zombie fungus that destroyed human civilization outside, but there’s something different about the children. Instead of being mindless monsters, they’re dormant. They only act like zombies when exposed to bodily fluids, and the scientists in the facility are hoping this mutation could hold the key to a vaccine. The kids aren’t prisoners, they’re lab rats.
[embedded content]
The Girl With All The Gifts relies on classic zombie horror tropes for its tense thriller atmosphere, but it stands out due to its thoughtful concept and unique protagonist. Another film might have spent more time prevaricating about Melanie’s personhood, but it’s clear from the beginning that she isn’t a monster in disguise, she’s just a (relatively) normal girl with a horrifying disease. Her main struggle is to maintain a sense of self while the adults in the bunker make every effort to dehumanize her.
Some characters like Sergeant Parks (Paddy Considine) are actively cruel to the children, while the scientist Dr. Caldwell (Glenn Close) views them with chilly detachment. But even this is more complex than it seems, because their coldness is borne of self-preservation. They can’t allow themselves to form relationships with the children, because they might have to shoot one at any moment.
Melanie is an outlier because she makes a daily effort to be as friendly and cheerful as possible, even as the guards strap her into a wheelchair with a gun to her head. Everyone except Miss Justineau finds this creepy as hell, either because they view Melanie as a monster, or simply because Melanie shouldn’t be so happy when she’s living in Hell. This is the point where the film’s casting choices feel especially relevant: not only are three of the four lead characters female—still a rarity in genre movies—but the narrative is built around powerful adults being terrified and threatened by the body and humanity of a young black girl.
The Girl With All The Gifts
Even alongside experienced actors like Glenn Close, 13-year-old Sennia Nanua is the true star, from her lovable childlike moments to her haunting microexpressions when Melanie realizes she’s about to go feral. There’s a constant tension between Melanie’s innocent love for Miss Justineau, and the knowledge that something could go wrong at any moment.
The Girl With All The Gifts manages the rare feat of finding a new direction among the familiar elements of a zombie story, reframing the apocalyptic outbreak as a kind of Darwinian conflict where the desperate, cruel humans may not actually deserve to survive. And without spoiling any later plot twists, we can say that it does go somewhere interesting with these ideas.
The film’s low budget is occasionally noticeable during special effects shots, but this only serves to highlight how much can be done with a good idea and an excellent cast. It’s miles ahead of recent mainstream offerings like World War Z and Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, making it more like the Ex Machina of the zombie genre.
The Girl With All The Gifts is out in the U.K. on Sept.23, and at festival screenings in the U.S.
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Review: 'The Girl With All The Gifts' Is the Best Zombie Movie of 2016 – The Daily Dot
September 24th, 2016
After a summer of lackluster franchise sequels, British zombie movie The Girl With All The Gifts is a breath of fresh air. Making incredibly good use of its $5.2 million budget, it could be the rightful heir to 28 Days Later.
Written by comic book author Mike Carey (Lucifer, Hellblazer) and directed by Colm McCarthy (Peaky Blinders, Sherlock), The Girl With All The Gifts has an unusual origin story. Instead of being a straight adaptation of Carey’s 2014 novel of the same name, he wrote the screenplay and the book at the same time. Against all the odds, both turned out great: The novel was well received by critics, and the film is a deliciously tense and clever twist on classic zombie tropes.
The girl from the title is Melanie (Sennia Nanua), an alarmingly upbeat inmate in a post-apocalyptic bunker, where a class of children are kept locked in cells and transported by wheelchair to their daily lessons with Miss Justineau (Gemma Arterton), a kind of dystopian future Mary Poppins.
It slowly becomes apparent that Melanie and her classmates are infected with the same zombie fungus that destroyed human civilization outside, but there’s something different about the children. Instead of being mindless monsters, they’re dormant. They only act like zombies when exposed to bodily fluids, and the scientists in the facility are hoping this mutation could hold the key to a vaccine. The kids aren’t prisoners, they’re lab rats.
[embedded content]
The Girl With All The Gifts relies on classic zombie horror tropes for its tense thriller atmosphere, but it stands out due to its thoughtful concept and unique protagonist. Another film might have spent more time prevaricating about Melanie’s personhood, but it’s clear from the beginning that she isn’t a monster in disguise, she’s just a (relatively) normal girl with a horrifying disease. Her main struggle is to maintain a sense of self while the adults in the bunker make every effort to dehumanize her.
Some characters like Sergeant Parks (Paddy Considine) are actively cruel to the children, while the scientist Dr. Caldwell (Glenn Close) views them with chilly detachment. But even this is more complex than it seems, because their coldness is borne of self-preservation. They can’t allow themselves to form relationships with the children, because they might have to shoot one at any moment.
Melanie is an outlier because she makes a daily effort to be as friendly and cheerful as possible, even as the guards strap her into a wheelchair with a gun to her head. Everyone except Miss Justineau finds this creepy as hell, either because they view Melanie as a monster, or simply because Melanie shouldn’t be so happy when she’s living in Hell. This is the point where the film’s casting choices feel especially relevant: not only are three of the four lead characters female—still a rarity in genre movies—but the narrative is built around powerful adults being terrified and threatened by the body and humanity of a young black girl.
The Girl With All The Gifts
Even alongside experienced actors like Glenn Close, 13-year-old Sennia Nanua is the true star, from her lovable childlike moments to her haunting microexpressions when Melanie realizes she’s about to go feral. There’s a constant tension between Melanie’s innocent love for Miss Justineau, and the knowledge that something could go wrong at any moment.
The Girl With All The Gifts manages the rare feat of finding a new direction among the familiar elements of a zombie story, reframing the apocalyptic outbreak as a kind of Darwinian conflict where the desperate, cruel humans may not actually deserve to survive. And without spoiling any later plot twists, we can say that it does go somewhere interesting with these ideas.
The film’s low budget is occasionally noticeable during special effects shots, but this only serves to highlight how much can be done with a good idea and an excellent cast. It’s miles ahead of recent mainstream offerings like World War Z and Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, making it more like the Ex Machina of the zombie genre.
The Girl With All The Gifts is out in the U.K. on Sept.23, and at festival screenings in the U.S.
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Zombie Derby II splatters its way to the Play Store – Android Authority (blog)
September 24th, 2016
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There can’t be many better ways to unwind after a long work week than this. Zombie Derby II is an action-packed offering from Herocraft that puts you behind the wheel of a Mad-Max inspired death machine to cruise through the post-apocalyptic wasteland mowing down hordes of the undead.
This 3D side-scrolling shoot-em-up takes its cues from a number of different genres. Stylistically, it feels something like Trials, with the game handling all the steering along the winding track, leaving your hands free to blast away. It’s also an upgrader, meaning you’ll gradually unlock more powerful vehicles and weapons to turn zombies into mince meat.
See also: Best racing games for Android56
You must navigate deadly terrain and face a gamut of grisly ghouls of varying types. You can unlock 8 different cars including a giant Zombie Combine Harvester. There are multiple modes of play including an endless survival mode and a competitive mode that pits you against friends all over the world. There’s plenty of destructible environmental elements as well that are guaranteed to help you let off steam after a long day. No strategy or advanced gameplay here: just raw, bloody fun.
Zombie Derby II’s predecessor racked up more than 8 million downloads, so this developer clearly has their chops. Zombie Derby II is free to play but contains in-app purchases. Click the button below to get to hacking through the hordes.
Get it in the Play Store
See also: Best Android games of 2016182
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First Look: Martin Freeman in Australian Zombie Thriller 'Cargo' – Hollywood Reporter
September 24th, 2016
10:04 PM PDT 9/22/2016 by Pip Bulbeck
‘Cargo’ is based on the 2013 short film of the same name, which was a finalist at the Tropfest Film Festival.
While he’s played a fantasy creature and a Victorian-era doctor-turned-sleuth in The Hobbit and Sherlock, respectively, upcoming Australia thriller Cargo is the first time Martin Freeman has starred in a genre film.
Based on the hit Australian short film of the same name by Yolanda Ramke and Ben Howling, Freeman stars as Andy, a father infected with a killer virus in the aftermath of a zombie pandemic. Stranded in rural Australia he has a desperate 48 hours to find a new guardian for his infant daughter and a means to protect her from his own changing nature. Salvation may lie with an isolated Aboriginal tribe, but to gain access he must first earn the allegiance of a young Indigenous girl on a tragic quest of her own.
Producer Sam Jennings of Causeway Films told THR that while Freeman’s agent initially said that “genre’s not really his thing,” on reading Ramke’s script the British actor was impacted by the story, finding it “unexpectedly powerful.”
Currently in production in South Australia, Cargo also stars legendary Aboriginal actor David Gulpilil (Charlie’s Country), Anthony Hayes (Animal Kingdom, The Light Between Oceans, upcoming War Machine), Caren Pistorius (The Light Between Oceans), Susie Porter (Puberty Blues) and newcomer Simone Landers.
Ramke and Howling are co-directing their debut feature. Causeway Films producers Samantha Jennings and Kristina Ceyton (The Babadook) are working alongside Addictive Pictures’ Russell Ackermann and John Schoenfelder, with Mark Patterson attached as South Australian producer.
The film is being financed with the assistance of Screen Australia, the South Australian Film Corporation, Screen NSW, White Hot Productions and The Gingerbread Man.
Bankside Films is handling international sales, with Umbrella distributing in Australia and New Zealand and Icon Film Distribution distributing in the U.K. Bankside Film’s sister company, Head Gear Films, also provided production finance, with Phil Hunt and Compton Ross acting as executive producers for Head Gear Films.
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