Martin Freeman is Andy, a man we see at the start of this movie with his partner, Kay. The two have a young daughter, Rosie, and they are trying to survive a world in which zombies are a wandering threat. Things change greatly when Kay is bitten, leaving the family unit as just father and daughter, so Andy plans a journey that he hopes will take them both to a better place.
Written by Yolanda Ramke, who also-co-directed with Ben Howling (the same positions they inhabited for their short film), Cargo is one of many films that come along to remind you of how many wonderful variations we can have within the zombie movie subgenre. The focus is on survival, as it so often is, but there's a lack of self-interest here. All that Andy wants to do is to give his daughter a chance to have some kind of life, and his every decision is informed by this, whether the people he meets are good or not.
Freeman is a great choice for the lead role, he always brings a quality to his characters that have you on his side from the very beginning and there's some added ingredient here watching this Englishman trying to plod on under the glare of an Australian sun (for that is where the film is set). Simone Landers is very good as young Thoomi, the inverse of Andy, a child trying their best to protect their father, and Anthony Hayes and Caren Pistorius play the kind of characters you often see in a zombie movie, ones that behave in ways that show a moral compass birling and whirling around differently in a world gone mad (well . . . that's more Hayes, really, but both have moments to keep you on your toes until you figure out how things are going to play out).
Cargo is a very good film. It uses some very familiar zombie movie moments, but they're all given that twist because it's a parent and child trying to survive them. It's also a great illustration of how to expand an impressive short into a feature. There are three key scenes here that are taken from the short film, but everything in between feels like a nice addition to the world, and to the story, in stead of just material used to pad out something that should have just stayed a short (as happens with a number of these things).
Not a film for those who need an excess of shambling undead, buckets of gore, and the standard third act situation of survivors being cornered and gradually overrun by hordes of zombies, Cargo is one to watch if you're wanting some horror with heart. If you're sitting there from the very beginning, rubbing your hands with glee, wondering when the baby will get eaten then it's probably best that you find something else to watch.
8/10
There's A disc available here.
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