With The Walking Dead serving up weekly doses of dismemberment and post-apocalyptic survivalism, we don't get a lot of old-fashioned zombie movies these days. Instead, filmmakers and storytellers have turned to subversive, pensive reinventions of the genre in the vein of Maggie and The Girl with All the Gifts. The next film in that tradition is The Cured, a new horror drama set in a world ravaged for years by a zombie-like virus that turns the infected into feral cannibal when a cure is found at last, allowing the survivors to reintegrate back into society.

The cured follows Senan (Sam Keeley), an infected young man who moves in with his widowed sister-in-law after he's cured and struggles to reconcile with his violent deeds while he was afflicted -- see, in The Cured, the ex-zombies remember all the grotesque, gruesome things they did during their sickness. The film also promises some potent allegory and "provocative parallels to our troubled times," and in that regard, It reminds me a lot of the short-lived but wonderful series In the Flesh, with a bit more of an arthouse, outright horror vibe.

Written and directed by David Freyne, The Cured also stars Tom Vaughan-Lawlor and Paula Malcomson and arrives in theaters and On Demand on February 23, 2018. Watch the trailer below.

Here's the official synopsis:

"What happens when the undead return to life? In a world ravaged for years by a virus that turns the infected into zombie-like cannibals, a cure is at last found and the wrenching process of reintegrating the survivors back into society begins. Among the formerly afflicted is Senan (Sam Keeley), a young man haunted by the horrific acts he committed while infected. Welcomed back into the family of his widowed sister-in-law (Ellen Page), Senan attempts to restart his life—but is society ready to forgive him and those like him? Or will fear and prejudice once again tear the world apart? Pulsing with provocative parallels to our troubled times, The Cured is a smart, scary, and hauntingly human tale of guilt and redemption."

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Image via The Cured
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Image via IFC Midnight
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Image via IFC Midnight