Director: Ben Howling, Yolanda Ramke
Writer: Yolanda Ramka (Screenplay)
Starring: Martin Freeman, Anthony Hayes, Susie Porter, Caren Pistorius, Kris McQuade, Natasha Wanganeen
Plot: CARGO is a post apocalyptic thriller and an emotional story of a father trying to save his child at all costs.
Tagline – The future is fragile
Runtime: 1 Hour 45 Minutes
There may be spoilers the rest of the review
Verdict: Compelling Zombie Film
Story: Cargo starts as we meet Andy (Freeman), his wife Kay (Porter) and baby daughter Josie who are traveling across Australia to a military base after a zombie outbreak has swept across the country. Using the river their guide, things take a turn for the worse, when Kay gets bitten leaving her just 48 hours to live. When she turns she bites Andy, leaving him with 48 hours to find someone to care for his daughter.
Along the way he meets Vic (Hayes) a man that is using bait to keep his land safe, with not everything being as it seems and it ends up with Andy having to join a fellow survivor Thoomi (Landers) for the right person to look after his daughter.
Thoughts on Cargo
Characters – Andy is the husband and father trying to find safety for his family, he fails in this attempt with his wife now dead and him infected. He must rush to find somebody in the outback to care for his baby before he turns too, he is a man pushed to limits never imaginable. Vic is a man that Andy meets, he seems like the best possible pick until Andy sees the darker side of his survival. Thoomi is a young girl from the outback that joins with Andy to find a new home for baby Josie.
Performances – Martin Freeman is brilliant in this leading role, he carries the story with his characters pure desperation to save his daughter. New comer Simone Landers is great too showing as one from the natives in the tribal lands. If we are honest we don’t meet enough of the supporting characters to give a true rating on their performances.
Story – The story is adapted from a short film of the same name, with the same idea. The simple idea is one man in a zombie outbreak must find someone to care for his baby daughter after he becomes infected, 48 hours is his time limit. When it first got announced this sounded like a breath of fresh area, it does deliver on this because we are happy to follow along on this journey. The only draw back is that we do get to see him have options which might not be the best pick for such a short time limit in search for help. In fairness this is a simple and easy to watch story, it will test the moral discussion about what to do, but isn’t filled with any scenes that feel out of place.
Horror/Thriller – Any film that is set in a zombie apocalypse is going to get the marks for the horror, the undead do have traits we know as well as a few original ideas behind them which adds to certain moments of horror.
Settings – The film is set in the Australian outback which is something that makes this stand out for the zombie genre, we don’t have big cities, we have large open spaces, which low numbers of the infected.
Special Effects – When we look at effects we must be praising them because the practical ones used for the zombie effects and injury effects look spot on.
Scene of the Movie – The final walk.
That Moment That Annoyed Me – I would question how he ended up in Australia in the first place.
Final Thoughts – This is another good spin on the zombie genre, we often have the desperate attempts to save babies or loved ones, but this time we know his fate and we are gripped waiting to see where it will end up going.
Overall: Gripping and Intense zombie film.
Rating
