Eighth Annual FMS Scarelicious October Movie Series: #15 Maggie

Maggie, a 2015 horror/drama starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and Abigail Breslin, is a kinder, gentler zombie movie.  In this post-apocalyptic scenario, the Necroambulist (literally, "walking dead") virus affects both crops and people in America's heartland.  While farmers are able to burn their crops, dealing with people is not so easy.  The virus takes from 2-8 weeks to fully develop in people and the infected are supposed to be turned over to quarantine centers after a certain point.  Authorities insist that the infected are taken care of there, treated with compassion until their final moments, but reports circulate of people being indiscriminately tossed into huge warehouses, regardless of their infection level, and just left there to rot, the more advanced cases often eating the less sick folks.

When Maggie (Breslin) runs away from her small town farming community, her father Wade (Schwarzenegger) searches for her for two weeks, finally finding her in a city hospital, having suffered a zombie bite on her arm.  A local doctor pulls some strings for him and Wade is allowed to bring Maggie home, with strict instructions to get regular check-ups and to turn her in before it goes too far.  Although Maggie's stepmom sends the two younger children off to live with their aunt, life at the family farmhouse goes as well as can be expected.  As the infection infiltrates Maggie's body more with each passing day, the stepmom grows a little nervous; but Maggie's high school friends support and comfort her and her father is her staunchest ally, even as he knows the inevitable is coming.

A low key character study, Maggie is a horror film in name only - the biggest horror is watching a beloved family member rot before your eyes.  There are a couple of zombie moments and the makeup work, as the infection advances on Maggie, is cool.  Schwarzenegger is fantastic here, shaken and sorrowful and fiercely protective; many reviews I've read wish the filmmakers hadn't wimped out on the ending because he clearly could have handled it.  A nice little movie for people who like their zombie movies with more brains than braineaters.