Reviews of “Cargo” (2013) and related work
- Remake: Cargo (2017)
“Cargo” (2013
)
Seen in 2018.
A man wakes up bitten in a car. His partner has turned. His baby’s in the back seat.
A neatly condensed image of adulthood.
‣ Cargo (2017)
Seen in 2020.
Curiously, this feature-film version does not preserve the symbolism of the short. It goes for two other lines of symbolism. One of these is almost identical to The Last Wave (1977), in that an Australian of European descent plays a role in a disaster foreseen by mystically connected “Aboriginal” Australians, though in this case, it is the man’s child and not the man himself who will ultimately transcend tribes. The other line of symbolism is a largely typical Romero-esque critique of consumerism and capitalism: The zombies literally bury their heads in the sand, purportedly to avoid sunlight and sleep (“hibernate”) during the day, while Vic tries to hoard wealth through exploitation.
There are a couple of questionable set pieces (how did Vic get stuck? How does the cage door work?) and the special-effects makeup does not afford an elegant interpretation of the pus that sometimes appears at the eyes and mouth of a zombie, but does not appear gradually in the infected, even as they vomit black bile. Aside from that detail, the somewhat indifferent acting and the unlikely 48-hour timers, the zombie premises are good. There’s old-school Romero slowness, a disease vector and a boldly consistent, gradual incubation/conversion procedure; it all works very well. It would have worked even better with the symbolism of the short film intact.