Format: DVD from personal collection on basement television.
Maggie is a movie that is interesting for a couple of reasons. First, it’s very much a zombie movie, but there are only a couple of zombies that appear in it. It’s slow and contemplative, the sort of zombie movie that a horror fan could legitimately show to a non-horror fan with the hope that they might actually enjoy it. The second thing about Maggie is that it’s evidence that Arnold Schwarzenegger can act.
Yeah, I know. Up to this point, Arnie’s best performances were in the first two Terminator movies and a mindless killing machine and then as a mindful killing machine. In Maggie, he’s asked to play a truly emotional role, one that would be difficult for any actor, and he pulls it of surprisingly well. Arnie has some chops, and that’s kind of surprising.
When Maggie begins, we are in the middle of the zombie pandemic. The plague, called Necroambulism, is a slow burn in terms of infection. When you’re bitten, it takes a few weeks for it to turn you into a ghoul. There’s still a semblance of order, and those who are bitten are frequently sent off to quarantine where they are eventually killed, although there are rumors that the infected are not quarantined from each other and those further along frequently attack those who are less infected. We also learn that the cocktail of drugs used to euthanize the infected is extremely painful and unpleasant.
The film concerns Midwestern farmer Wade (Schwarzenegger), whose daughter Maggie (Abigail Breslin) has been bitten. He receives a call from her telling him that she loves him and not to look for her—she’s run off to a nearby city (unnamed, but presumably in the Midwest) to protect the family. Wanting her back, Wade tracks her down to a hospital and brings her home. Naturally, this is not a popular choice with the people in the area, nor is it a popular choice for Wade’s second wife Caroline (Joely Richardson).
What follows is the story of Maggie’s last few days and the progression of her illness. Wade is told what to watch for as the disease—characterized by a spreading black infection from the bite location—progresses. She’ll lose feeling and a taste for food, and then will suddenly start smelling food as she nears other people, a sign that she is about to turn. In the meanwhile, Wade and Maggie deal with her impending death. Maggie spends time saying goodbye to friends including a former boyfriend Trent (Bryce Romero), who is also infected and is further along by a few days than Maggie is.
Maggie has very little violence, and only a couple of zombies actually appear in the film. While they are upsetting to look at, we’re not going to get the typical horde of marching undead that seems to happen at the end of very movie tagged with “zombie” on IMDb. While an initial encounter is surprising and scary, a later encounter of a zombified neighbor and his equally undead daughter evokes more sadness than fear, a sort of grim resolution of the inevitability of what is going to happen to Maggie, a dark look into her immediate future.
It's difficult for me to stress just how believable Arnold Schwarzenegger is in this role. His past roles are characterized by over-the-top action, frequently enough in science fiction and sometimes horror that the basic genre feels in place for him, but not the specifics. Maggie could almost be about a man dealing with his daughter dying from cancer, or from something contagious. Made five or six years after its actual 2015 release date, and this would be very clearly a metaphor for COVID. Arnold is a man dealing with a terrible tragedy and not really wanting to face it. Those around him—the local cops and even his wife—are more dispassionate about what is going on, while he struggles with the obvious reality that he may be forced to kill his daughter to save himself and his family.
This is not a movie that got a lot of fanfare, and it came out right around the time that Abigail Breslin stopped being in what felt like every other movie (seriously, from 2008-2016 or so, she was in 2-4 movies per year) and it slipped under a lot of radar. It is uneven in places, and might be too slow for what it’s trying to do, but even if it’s not your normal cup of tea, it’s worth tracking down. If nothing else, do it to prove to yourself that Arnie can do more than scream at kindergarten children and play robots.
Why to watch Maggie: Surprise, surprise, Arnie can act.
Why not to watch: The performances are better than the movie.
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