Wade Vogel searching for his teenage daughter Maggie eventually finds her in a hospital finding out she has been infected by the disease that has a massive outbreak which turns the victim into a cannibalistic zombie. We see her transformation and the love that her father never loses.
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Maggie is a very different type of zombie film and makes the outbreak of the disease that people catch to turn them into a zombie feel rather real and somewhat emotional. It does not instantly turn them into a zombie like we usually see in zombie films, this is a slow burner in terms of the transformation taking a little bit of time. We are given a rather emotional journey with Maggie, her father Wade and some of her friends.
While the victim does not look great at all during the process at those different stages they are not actually a threat to anyone else. The only way to catch it is through a bite from someone who has already fully transformed. With this we actually see Maggie eventually going out with her friends, after attempting to hide away from them and I felt that was actually a rather lovely moment as her best friend kept bothering her to join them and enjoy life (while she still could of course).
Wade was very understanding as it was still his daughter, although her stepmother Caroline was not really as sympathetic. Not really wanting her in the house and quite frankly having a fear for it going too far before Wade would actually send her away. She sends away her two young children to protect them from Maggie and that was actually quite a difficult thing to watch. As it really highlighted the dangers that would be an issue when she is fully transformed. Not being able to see the people you love anymore and attacking them.
A slight love story was put in place and that was another rather nice thing to have in for both teens who were infected. It was like some strange pact and attraction that grew from that, although then having to deal with reaching the next stage was never going to be easy at all.
While this is a very different take on becoming a zombie and has some rather emotional moments at times the pace was dangerously slow, which was a shame as I really did love the concept behind it. Just felt it could have been a little bit more really and pushed it to different levels, instead it slightly stalled with that. The mixture of making it really personal for families and difficult was a highlight that's for sure.
This is probably one of the most emotional Arnold Schwarzenegger performances that I have seen and it probably isn't something you would really expect from a zombie film is it? But I do remember hearing good and positive things surrounding him in this film when it was realised and that was not wrong at all. Abigail Breslin worked very well with him and again puts in a good performance and given quite a good transformation to physically work with as well, is she a little bit underrated at times? I think so.
