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Cargo
2017, d. Ben Howling, Yolanda Ramke - netflix
There's a couple of films called Cargo out there. One which is a middling German sci-fi/horror is also on netflix.
The Story:
After his wife dies, and having passed along the infection to him, Martin Freeman roams remote Australian territory with his infant daughter, about to turn zombie-like within 48 hours. He's trying to find a safe place for his daughter, but does such a thing exist?
It does... with the aboriginal peoples of Australia who have returned deep in land and restored the old ways of living.
Why This?
Australia. Hoping for beautiful vistas as seen on The Leftovers and The Crown... as well as the not so beautiful Mad Max-ian vistas.
What's Good?
I like this film's take on the virus and how it was normalized at first, to the point that the government at somepoint just airdropped plague identifiation/survival/self-disposal kits, which contain a sort of epipen-like spring-loaded giant spike for killing one's self (and I guess ensuring one stays dead... they don't really say the infected here are undead, except to say their spirits have left them). There's also a fitbit like watch to countdown the 48 hours the infection takes to fully manifest. Plus a guide to the stages of the infection.
One of the things the infection does is cause massive brain aches, where people will bang their heads on the wall or bury their heads in the sand like cartoon ostriches. The sight of the buried zombie people is kind of funny, but so off-kilter that it's absolutely terrifying.
I loved the approach that this film took, showing that sticking with modern ways will be our downfall. Looking to the old ways, communing with nature, returning to community is where humanity's strength lays. I liked that Martin Freeman was our protagonist, but even more that teenage Toomi was our hero.
I also liked that the film doesn't really go for intense scares or gore, but it's plenty intense and unsettling. But it has a more purposeful direction.
It also delivers on those gorgeous and dusty Australian vistas quite nicely.
Not so good...
The film acknowledges that there are people who don't want to be community minded, that there are people who don't want to let go of all the modern trappings they know, that there are people who crave power and their own security over others. I don't like those people, and most films /stories in po-ap like to make those people the larger threat than whatever the existential threat is. This film has one of those, but he's so on point I have a hard time faulting it for his place in this movie. What I don't like is the turn-back, that he comes back again (you figure he would, but I had hoped he wouldn't), all vengeance- minded.
I watched this on my phone. I didn't give those vistas the screen they deserved. My bad.
The bad thing:
Zombies? I guess they're zombies. Like The Ravenous, the "zombies" here have some peculiar behaviour, but where as The Ravenous' spires of material posessions were kind of inexplicable, I like that the burying heads in sand or banging heads against walls or rocks was a sign of the infection's effect on the brain. Like all zombies, they respond to sound... and these are fast zombies, so I'm assuming it's another mutation of the 28 Days Later virus.
Franchise Potential
I don't know if these zombies were distinct enough to demand a franchise. But certainly the way the pandemic was responded to in this one and the survivors being those who were taught the old ways of life, could make for an interesting prequel or sequel.
Did I like watching this?
Yet another zombie movie? Sigh. I like that people are now giving spins on the infection that causes zombism, which makes these tired old undead more engaging, but it would have been more interesting to me if it wasn't a cannibalistic plague. I love the Australian setting and I liked the story overall, so yes, I guess I did enjoy it.
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