The Girl with All the Gifts Feature Trailer (2016)

Feature trailer for The Girl with All the Gifts, that was released for the film's domestic distribution.

The near future: humanity has been all but destroyed by a fungal disease that eradicates free will and turns its victims into flesh eating “hungries”. Only a small group of children seem immune to its effects. At an army base in rural England, this group of unique children are being studied and subjected to cruel experiments. But one little girl, Melanie, stands out from the rest.

When the base falls, Melanie escapes along with Miss Justineau (Gemma Arterton), Sergeant Parks (Paddy Considine), Dr. Caldwell (Glenn Close) and two other soldiers. Against the backdrop of a blighted Britain, Melanie must discover what she is and ultimately decide both her own future and that of the human race.

Where do you go to get shots of a post-apocalyptic city? Ukraine of course! Okay, no offense to Ukraine, but the second unit production crew did come up with a bit of creativity to show a ghost town of a city. The crew went to Prypjat, which just happens to be right next to Chernobyl. With the use of a drone, they sent a camera up to shoot footage of the abandoned town, which doubled for an abandoned London.

But that doesn't mean London itself wasn't used for the setting of er, London. Some scenes were shot in the Birmingham business district.

In regards to accuracy, something that could have received complaints from the PC crowd was the casting of Gemma Arterton. Rocking fair skin, Arterton is not exactly the matching description of "dark-skinned" Helen Justineau. While the color of skin is typically not important, it does have some play in the story. Melanie, who is black in the book and in the film, is initially attracted to Helen not only for her kindness, but because they share the same skin color.

While I used to avoid the zombie genre like the plague -- mind the pun -- the genre has been growing on me. When I discovered that The Girl with All the Gifts was getting the movie treatment, I added the book to my must-read list. And it was good! Depressing as a mofo, but good!

Good enough to make sure to catch the film in theaters? Not that good. But I do look forward to a viewing at home.