Maggie is dying. As the infection on her arm spreads through her body, her eyes grow cloudy, her appetite atrophies, and the best she can do is try to delay the inevitable. Soon, she will go through “the turn”, and transform into one of them — the ones who did this to her. When the infection takes over a human body, only an uncontrollable cannibalistic shell remains. It’s only a matter of time before the virus destroys his daughter, but Wade has taken it upon himself to see his daughter through to her last breath. In this bleak look at what it’s like to lose a family member, a distinct, superb debut from first time director Henry Hobson is born, and Arnold Schwarzenegger gives his most honest, open, and impactful performance to date.

Ever since his Terminator days, Arnold Schwarzenegger has been known for his gun-toting, bomb throwing, fist-fighting performances, filled with quotable one-liners, shirtless scenes, and every angle of Arnold’s biceps that cameras have been able to capture. Watching him in such a quiet, subdued role as the father of a dying daughter is surprisingly touching and moving. This is Schwarzenegger like you’ve never seen him before. Raw and exposed, Arnold is vulnerable for the first time, as he takes on the most human character he’s ever played, in a gamble that pays off wonderfully. Breslin is brilliant as Maggie, the unwilling terminal patient who won’t ever reach womanhood.The bond between Schwarzenegger and Breslin is natural and real, and makes their journey together down this dark path all the more heartbreaking.

Hardened by the loss of Maggie’s mother, and adjusting to life as a new family with Caroline and her two kids, Maggie and Wade have an ever-present delicate distance between them. However, as time goes on, their facade fades away, and they learn to embrace each other’s company while they still can. Maggie comes to terms with her illness as each day delivers another dose of reality. Dead and decaying skin, a disease that slowly cripples and eventually kills, and an erosion of emotions and motor control all mark Maggie’s conundrum. Each new symptom brings with it another devastating reminder of what’s to come, and a stronger fear of quarantine. While Maggie tries to maintain a mask and keep it together for the sake of her father, he, too, bears the burden of grief. A father’s role is the protector of his family, and on this account, he has failed. At least, that’s how Wade sees it. Maggie parallels the crops Wade slaved over for years, but burned when he couldn’t shield them from the poison. His sense of pride, of immortality and ability to love are brought to an abrupt halt when he learns of Maggie’s terminal fate. All of those years of raising her to be a bookworm like her mom, and telling jokes and tying shoes and teasing Caroline for her bad cooking are just memories on a timeline with an approaching end date. Maggie was his baby girl; his only connection to his late wife, and now, he’ll just be an old man abandoned with a burnt field and his thoughts.

Maggie is not a zombie movie. It is an emotional family drama about a man losing his daughter to the clutches of death. Zombies have always been a metaphor to serve as a commentary on some social circumstance, whether it be consumerism, isolationism, xenophobia, or simply the lack of humanity that arises in people when a crisis rears its ugly head. Unfortunately, these messages were lost somewhere along the way when gore and action became more popular and emphasized in genre films. Maggie is a pleasant return to the roots of the undead, as the zombie virus in the film can be replaced with almost any other disease, and work just as effectively. To Wade, losing Maggie to this virus is no different than losing her to cancer, or AIDS, or heart disease. It’s unavoidable, and unfair, as these two broken people struggle to cope with life’s cruel nature, and the loss of a relationship that only started to flourish when it threatened to finally be extinguished.

Overall, Maggie is a triumphant successful directional debut for Henry Hobson, and a long-awaited example of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s range. The faded, dull color scheme paint this movie to look like an old photograph; a hazy distant memory of a time when a family was united and present and loved. The overuse of handheld camera and deliberate constant close-up shots makes the audience feel like they’re just another part of the family watching this travesty unfold; engulfed up in the sadness and the desperation. The horror takes a backseat to the drama, and the result is one of the most unique zombies movies to come out in recent memory. Hopefully, we’ll be seeing Schwarzenegger taking on more dramatic roles, and director Henry Hobson making as many movies as possible.