5. Canada Being A Hellhole
Following on from the ships being a safe haven, the only thing people on them are threatened with is deportation to refugee camps. The film makes a big show of this, implying that the people Mrs Lane and the children witness being turned away from the ships are effectively being given a death sentence. And really, this matches up with the book. No refugee camps did particularly well on the page, with most of them being co-opted into the Redeker Plan as bait. So for book fans, when we hear that Gerrys family is being moved to Nova Scotia, we fear the worst. Of all the places taken up by refugees, the book takes great pains in telling you that those who trekked to Canada had a bad time. They suffered snows they were unprepared for, as well as banditry and food shortages. They actually ended up resorting to cannibalism, which Im sure is ironic in some way. But when Gerry ventures there, it doesnt seem that bad at all. Granted, were only there for moments but theres a definite impression that the Lanes were surviving comfortably. They didnt appear starved, there was a military presence and there didnt seem to be any zombies about at all. All these are extreme luxuries when compared to the situation in the book. I guess it might have been too much to ask for the films well-documented struggles with finding an ending meant parts had to be cut out somewhere, but much like every other point in this list its still an opportunity missed. Documenting the struggles of those refugees gave a sense of the desperate situation many ordinary people found themselves in by showing just how grim it was, but the film doesnt really take the chance to explore that theme. Wherever the cameras go Israel, Cardiff, the ships, South Korea all the people are holed up and living in relative comfort despite the plague. Truly, thats a bit odd, and missing a vital part of the zombie experience.