13 Days to Halloween: 'Cargo' is a bleak, ruminative zombie film

For the '13 Days to Halloween' series, I collect, watch, and write about 13 brilliant and spooky 'underseen' movies that more people need to see. Note that I did not use the term 'underrated', as I believe they were just overlooked for various reasons, and not necessarily rated lower than they deserve. The films are ranked worst to best, in my opinion. The series will end on October 31 with the film that I think is the best and scariest little-known horror flick.

Zombie films do not have a good reputation. The chief reason, I feel, is that there are just too many of them. And great quantity rarely translates to great quality. If there is too much of something, one has to dig deep to find gold. Many flicks about the undead are just happy to thrill moviegoers with gory action, and little else. There are, however, a few movies that do break the mould, and at least attempt to be about something more substantial than "kill zombies!".

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'28 Days Later' and 'Shaun of the Dead' are two good examples of two solid zombie films from the 21st century. But they are pretty well-known, and chances are you have seen them already. Martin Freeman-starrer 'Cargo', streaming on Netflix, is sadly a lesser-known film that deserves a larger audience.

In 'Cargo' the world was overrun by flesh-eating zombies, who also killed and ate most humans. The world is full of death and sadness. How often a zombie film treats the end of humanity as anything other than fantasies of being a hero who kills the undead and saves the day instead of the horrifying and heartbreaking event it will be? Well, in 'Cargo' you really see how few survivors who escaped zombies are clinging on to tiny scraps of hope just to stay sane in a world where insanity prevails.

Freeman and Susie Porter play Andy and Rose, parents of an infant girl who found shelter in a houseboat and are sailing along a river in rural Australia. While things are fine for the moment, the sense of lasting safety is nowhere in sight.

Rose gets bitten and Andy is left alone in the world with his baby girl.

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In another plotline, a young aboriginal girl Thoomi (Simone Landers) is hiding from her own tribe, who have, understandably, turned their backs on civilisation again. She fears that her people will kill her father, who has turned. She keeps him in a pit and brings him food in the form of small animals.

The film moves at a fairly slow pace, especially for a zombie movie. There are also no typical thrills to be had like in other zombie movies. There is ample gore, but no visuals of scarlet innards, hanging intestines, and brains flowing out of shattered skulls. If you came for those, there are other options. Andy is just a normal man, not a hero. Whenever he spots a horde of zombies, he chooses to run like any sane man really would.

'Cargo' is for those who appreciate a great atmosphere, full-bodied characters, and thematic storytelling. Freeman gives a committed performance as a father worried about his child in a world full of mindless cannibals. This film might not be for everyone, but for those with patience, it will be worth your time.