Maggie

Another week, another apocalypse for Arnie. He shows his softer side in this horror, which starts in the aftermath of a zombie plague. The worst of it is over, but for Wade (Schwarzenegger), the hell is just beginning. He’s a typical Kansas City farm boy with the body of an ageing gladiator and the accent of a robot, whose teenage daughter Maggie (Abigail Breslin) is infected and afraid.

Choosing, perhaps irresponsibly, to take her back to their remote Missouri home rather than the government’s quarantine, Wade is forced to confront the increasingly gruesome reality of his daughter’s condition, an ordeal that only gets harder as her veins begin to turn black and one of her fingers rots off. First-time British director Henry Hobson resists the temptation to spice things up with more traditional scares, and the film never allows its ghoulish window dressing to overwhelm the simple story of a father losing his oldest child.

Schwarzenegger’s biggest contribution to the project may have been getting it financed, but he’s never been as vulnerable as he is in the scenes between Wade and Maggie. Breslin is likewise strong, but the film dilutes its emotion by splitting its focus between the two main characters.