The Cured

If the past 50 years of zombie movies have taught us anything, it's that there are fates worse than death. But how are we to feel when the dead come back to us as — seemingly — the same old neighbours, colleagues, and loved ones we once knew? Starring Academy Award nominee Ellen Page (also at this year's Festival in My Days of Mercy) and Sam Keeley, David Freyne's accomplished first feature presents an unfathomable dilemma: what happens after a zombie plague has been contained and cured, and those once infected attempt to reintegrate into society?

Senan (Keeley) has been through hell. When the plague swept across Ireland he was among the thousands afflicted and rendered into rabid ghouls. Senan did horrible things he cannot forget — and neither can the public, nor the authorities charged with policing those released from captivity. Senan's sister-in-law Abbie (Page), however, is willing to give him a second chance. She lets him live with her and her young son, believing that Senan's actions while infected were beyond his control. But as an angry anti-cured movement burgeons in tandem with an increasingly radicalized pro-cured movement, Abbie is forced to question just how far her trust should be pushed.

Like any great zombie flick, The Cured works on several levels: it's a gloriously terrifying horror-thriller packed with enough jump scares to satisfy genre fans, yet it also displays an intellect and heart that provoke empathy even as it takes aim at the ways in which humans beings fail each other.

KERRI CRADDOCK