This British production that you can see on Filmin is not actually an adaptation of the video game, but a recent (2016) image rendering of a 2014 book by Mike Carey that has many points in common with the classic modern by Naughty Dog. Although the book and the 2013 game were produced at the same time, they have surprising points in common: they go in different directions, but their coincidental plot details are interesting, reflecting a series of themes that were then in the air, to the point of that we would see a game, a book (and later a movie) that talk about the same thing almost at the same time.
In a very short game time, in ‘The Last of Us’ we discover that Ellie, the teenager Joel has to accompany and protect during a dangerous journey through an apocalyptic world, is infected by the same fungus that turns humans into ferocious mindless monsters. However, Ellie is asymptomatic, making her a valuable receptacle of information to take down the plague.
In ‘Melanie’ we also know from the outset that the protagonist (slightly younger than Ellie) is infected with the fungus, but in a different way. Melanie does show symptoms, but being part of the first generation of children born to infected women, he retains part of his rationality: She can’t help but turn into a deadly monster when she’s hungry, but the rest of the time she behaves like a human.
This tension between Melanie’s two personalities is what drives the film: Melanie wants to be friends with the soldiers and scientists at the military base where she is studied, but they fear her, like the rest of the infected children. When the security of the base is compromised, they will start, just like in ‘The Last of Us’, a journey through a world in ruins, only unlike Ellie, Melanie has to wear a muzzle.
A very specific fungus
Interestingly, andIn the video game and the movie, the fungus that triggers the apocalypse is the same, Ophiocordyceps Unilateralis.. It might seem like a suspicious coincidence, but the truth is that much has been said about the real version of the variants of this fungus and the possibilities of this organism unleashing a real apocalypse. But the effects are different in ‘Melanie’ and ‘The Last of Us’, both in the way the spores are transmitted and in the way they affect this second generation of “hungry” children, as they are called in the film.
The third notable resemblance of ‘Melanie’ and ‘The Last of Us’ is the vision of an abandoned world, with cities invaded by vegetation and full of old shops where the survivors have to look for food and tools to move on. The visualization of these ancient cities, now meaningless cement monstrosities, is comparable in both proposals, although in both cases it is easy to go back to classics of the genre, such as the founding prologue to ‘El día de los muertos’ by Romero.
Undoubtedly, where both visions of a terrifying future distance themselves is in his portrayal of his protagonists and in his ultimate destiny.. That is why it is interesting to compare them and see how two reflections on the apocalypse with surprising points in common end up making different decisions about how humanity faces an extreme situation, from hopelessness to reconstruction.
‘Melanie: The Girl with all the Gifts’ also has its own values that make it an essential event for devotees of the genre: the good work of Carey (who, in addition to writing the book and the film’s script, is a prestigious author of comics as popular as ‘Hellblazer’, ‘Lucifer’ or ‘X-Men) outlines complex and contradictory characters beyond Melanie herself. Actors like Paddy Cosidine or Glenn Close round off a very interesting film… whether you liked the official adaptation of ‘The Last of Us’ or not.
