Cargo (2017)

Perhaps the highest compliment I can pay it is that I think George A. Romero himself would have liked it.

Been there, undead that.

Co-directors Ben Howling and Yolanda Ramke (the latter of whom wrote the screenplay) sacrifice some tension with their more character-based approach, but the cumulative effect is emotionally powerful.

The Australian setting brings a fresh, and epic, quality to this now done-to-death genre, and the directors introduce a few nice new kinks to the zombie mythology.

From Romero's original zombie series to the films it inspired, this type of horror succeeds when it laces its scares with biting social commentary, and Cargo utilizes this formula to great success.

This familiar saga eschews jolting scares for survival-esque (and dark-heart-of-man) thrills, relying largely on Freeman's compelling lead turn to set it apart from the genre.

An elevated zombie thriller with a killer hook.

Cargo is proof, if it were needed, that Freeman can carry his own movies.

Cargo is a slow burn zombpocalypse drama that hits some familiar beats, yet there's a rich humanism at its core that makes the journey meaningful.

While Cargo is not quite in the same refined league as those works, this eerily effective hybrid of zombie thriller and apocalyptic odyssey deserves to be seen and appreciated by as wide an audience as possible.

It tries just a touch too hard to make the point...but Freeman and Landers are so strong and Geoffrey Simpson's cinematography so sumptuous that it hardly matters.

Plenty to admire in "Cargo," which does a different zombie stomp, finding a fresh approach to a customary story of survival, giving the norm some genuine heart and moments of futility.