When you know the film you’re sitting down to is from the producers behind the Harry Potter films and is adapted from a comic book by the creators of cartoon series Ben 10, you might not anticipate something grounded, intimate and introspective. However, this is just what we get from I Kill Giants, feature debut from director Anders Walter, which stars Madison Wolfe as a middle school outsider in a sleepy coastal town who has dedicated her life to battling the hidden threat of giants – or so she seems to believe. It’s a sensitively handled blend of kitchen sink drama, coming of age angst and high fantasy, and about two years ago it might have seemed genuinely new and different. However, in the years since the original comic was published, we’ve had JA Bayona’s big screen adaptation of Patrick Ness’s novel A Monster Calls, which tackles similar subject matter to similar effect. While this doesn’t render I Kill Giants completely superfluous, it’s hard to deny that it might rob the film of some of its power.
Wolfe is Barbara, a young teen who lives with her elder sister Karen (Imogen Poots of Green Room) and brother Dave (Art Parkinson, the artist formerly known as Rickon Stark). While the absence of parents is never directly remarked upon, it’s clear that the family is going through a rough time, but as far as Barbara’s concerned no one but her knows the half of it. Convinced that her town is besieged by terrible giants whose existence the masses are ignorant of, Barbara considers herself humanity’s last line of defence through the skills and knowledge she has somehow amassed. Perhaps unsurprisingly, this single-minded dedication to her quest has alienated Barbara from a school that dismisses her as a weirdo, but soon she has two new people in life reaching out to help: Sophia (Sydney Wade), an English girl who’s just started at the school, and Mrs. Mollé (Zoe Saldana of Guardians of the Galaxy, Star Trek and Avatar), the new school psychologist who has taken a special interest in Barbara.
Anyone who’s seen A Monster Calls will notice the obvious parallels. It centres on a female protagonist, and is set in the US rather than the UK (although it was shot in Ireland and Belgium, with a largely local cast putting on mostly convincing American accents), but otherwise it’s much the same story: a young teen, caught in between the wonder of childhood and the harsh reality of adulthood, slips into a fantastic nether-dimension where massive, otherworldly monsters are real. In both instances, the reality of these magical creatures is kept ambiguous at first, but – while I Kill Giants plays things close to its chest until the final act – the ultimate reason behind these ‘visions’ is also similarly motivated. As if this wasn’t enough, the films strike a very similar chord stylistically, with a cold, gritty realism to the cinematography throughout, until the monsters take things headfirst into Guillermo del Toro territory.
Of course, if you haven’t seen A Monster Calls (in which case, I do recommend it; aside from Sigourney Weaver’s British accent, it barely puts a foot wrong), then you may find I Kill Giants considerably more effective. And in any case, the youngsters who are its principle target audience will, I assume, not be too concerned either way by the similarities to the earlier film, and will instead be enthralled by Wolfe’s thoroughly endearing protagonist. Singularly strong-willed, fearless in the face of school bullies and hard-nosed teachers alike, yet nursing a heavily wounded soul, Barbara is a great character that kids and adults alike are bound to love. Perhaps inevitably the supporting characters are a little under-developed by comparison, but Poots, Wade and Saldana all give nice performances, and we also have a great school bully in Rory Jackson.
As a teen drama, then, I Kill Giants is effective – and it’s one of those films that really fits the frequently over-used 12/12A certificate, as it’s very much one for older kids, bound to be both too scary and too close to the bone emotionally for the very young. Whether it’s entirely effective as a fantasy is another matter; the danger with films such as these which use magic and monsters in an allegorical fashion is that they have a tendency to leave half the audience (i.e. those who want the monsters to be real) feeling short changed. Just know going in that this isn’t another Monster Squad or The Gate; the issues and the emotions are far more the focus than the creatures. If that doesn’t sound like your cup of tea, maybe steer clear. Otherwise, there’s much to appreciate here.
I Kill Giants is available on DVD in the UK now, from Kaleidoscope Home Entertainment.