Maggie (2015)

I definitely picked up on the "fresh spin" this one was going for and, while I appreciated it's ambition in mixing up the 'infection/outbreak/zombie' genre a little, it never quite managed to pick up the proper momentum and bolster the strength I think it could've had.

In a near-future setting, a new virus has hit that turns people in raving, zombie-ish lunatics. A farmer's teenage daughter is bitten by one of the infected lunatics, but apparently, the effects of the sickness don't set in immediately so those who are tainted are allowed to go on with their lives while being frequently monitored by the authorities and doctors. Once they've hit the point-of-no-return (everyone else smells like delicious meat and they go crazy...), they are whisked off to some quarantine zone where they are killed. The father is doing his best to cope with the inevitable while his daughter comes to realization that she's quite literally falling apart...

The concept here is a bit different than many flicks of this kind and it plays out as more of a tenebrous drama than a total 'horror' film. There ARE a few scenes early on that are reminiscent of "28 Days Later", involving infected, zombie-like creeps getting roughed up (one scene actually being pretty effective...), but for the most part, it tries to stick with a more emotional human element. Unfortunately, it's not done especially well, considering the characters are bland and particularly hard to 'connect' with, which seemed to offset the movie's essence. Arnold Schwarzenegger tries to pull off a little 'depth' with his character, but he really couldn't carry this film. Stylistically, it looks good - dreary tone; almost colorless, though, in terms of the premise and pacing, it didn't work for me. It was very plodding and left me feeling like I saw a ten minute movie stretched into a pretentious 95-minutes.

"Maggie" showed promise in certain areas, but the delivery was pretty lacking, I'm afraid.