Review: Cargo, The Best Zombie Film Since 28 Days Later
- May 20, 2018
- 2 min read
Andy (Martin Freeman), his wife Kay (Susie Porter), and their daughter Rosie, live on the river, moving a houseboat slowly toward a military base following a sudden and unexpected outbreak, one that turns the infected into ravenous killers, and it transmitted through biting. When Kay finds herself on the receiving end of an attack, and inevitably turns, Andy finds himself bitten in an attempt to save Rosie. And so he finds himself in a race against time. He has 48 hours to find someone to care for Rosie before he himself becomes one of the undead.
In a genre more focused on flashy action scenes, excessive gore and outrageous characters, Cargo carves out a little piece of quiet chaos deep in the Australian outback. It's a refreshing film that, for once, features some intelligent people in a survival situation. Martin himself gives a riveting performance with his desperation being almost palpable. Susie Porter also gives a solid, if short lived performance, effectively setting up the emotional stakes of the film within the first quarter.
There's also some great, if inconsequential scenes as well. I won't go into detail as they're nice little surprises, though the word nice doesn't exactly apply to their subject matter, but they add just enough to the film's world to make it seem that little bit more alive, and help to drive home the hopelessness of it all. And it times it really feels that way, as if there can be no happy ending, as if everything could come crashing down in a matter of seconds.
Cargo is a fantastic film. While some of its characters are a little derivative, to the point of being outlandish, it is ultimately a zombie, so that's to be expected. But when the end credits roll and you sit staring at those white letters against a black background, you'll know that Australian cinema isn't always the rubbish we've come to expect.
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