Film Review: 28 DAYS LATER (2002)

 28 DAYS LATER (2002) UK 1hr 53mins

Director: Danny Boyle

"HELLO!!!" - Jim

"Repent, The end is extremely fucking nigh!" - writing on the church wall.

Activists break into a lab to free some chimpanzees that are being experimented on. They find them strapped down being shown violent videos and it comes to light that they have been infected with the rage virus. Just as the activists set them free...they attack and the virus is past onto humans. Fast forward 28 days later and bicycle courier Jim (Cillian Murphy) wakes up in a hospital bed, naked and wired to a machine after suffering a head injury knowing nothing about the outbreak. Finding the hospital deserted he wonders into a desolate city with nothing but a wall of missing persons and ominous headlines of a mass exodus to go on. Heading to a nearby church he soon discovers the horrific effects of the disaster as he uncovers a mass grave and encounters his first infected. From then on Jim finds out that the world as he knew it no longer exists... he finds other survivors Selena (Naomie Harris), Frank (Brendan Gleeson) and daughter Hannah (Megan Burns) as they drive Franks black cab from London to Manchester avoiding hordes of infected to an Army outpost they had heard over the radio that state they can help survivors, as well as having answers to the infection. On arrival the survivors soon feel uncomfortable around the soldiers and it becomes apparent to Jim that maybe it is not just the infected they have to worry about. 

Made in late 2001 and released in November 2002 this Danny Boyle classic pretty much divides zombie movie fans down the middle. Introducing into the mainstream the concept of quick turning, fast zombies does not appeal to everyone. I agree that they are not your conventional version of the undead. In fact in a lot of cases it is not clear if they really are dead or not, what is similar though is that they do not function as normal human beings. The premise here is that once infected by the rage virus which is contracted by bodily fluids be it saliva from a bite or in the case of poor Frank contaminated blood. Causing most of your orifices to bleed profusely whilst an unceasing rage takes over making you beat, rip and pulverise the nearest uninfected person you come across. Technically they are not dead but with the rate of infection being 10-20 seconds after coming into contact with the virus the chances of someone finding a cure against such a prolific disease are pretty slim early on. I guess the term "infected" is more appropriate than zombie. Danny Boyle was very quick to state that 28 DAYS LATER was definitely NOT a zombie movie. Rumour has it Alex Garland (Writer) and Danny Boyle felt that the notion of the living dead craving brains was "outdated" and felt that the threat of bio-terrorism or viral diseases like Ebola were more scary for this era. They may not be the zombies we know and love but like them or hate them they certainly are a pretty scary take on the format for a modern time. They look fantastic and are so quick, strong and super sensitive to sound that there is little you can do unless you're heavily armed. 28 DAYS LATER doesn't exactly bring anything new to the mix as the hospital sequence is heavily influenced by John Wyndhams novel THE DAY OF THE TRIFFIDS (1951), which in turn was echoed in the first season of THE WALKING DEAD (2010). Cronenbergs RABID (1977) and Romeros THE CRAZIES (1973) brought a similar kind of infected to our screens long before 28 DAYS LATER  but to be fair to it there hadn't been a really good infected movie since the aforementioned 70's classics until 28 DAYS LATER came along. The story line for 28 DAYS LATER isn't a million miles off from DAWN OF THE DEAD (1978) or DAY OF THE DEAD (1985) either all covering the first threat of the undead/infected yet finding out that the human element, often military, is just as much of a danger. So obviously this non zombie movie heavily influenced by so called "outdated" zombie movies is nothing of the sort (face palm)!! 28 DAYS LATER was greeted by huge acclaim on its release and quickly became the most popular non zombie, zombie movie of it's time. Back in 2001/02 when they started filming it was one of the first mainstream movies to be shot entirely digitally. I have to admit that on my recent rewatch of it I found it quite glitchy at times and it certainly does look like it is getting on for it being 20 years old now but at the time it was pretty cutting edge. It is still a great movie to rewatch as you don't realise at the time how little actual gore there is in this. A lot of it is off screen and insinuated rather than acted out which is really clever and effective. The infected themselves look fantastic and are portrayed so well. There is a lot of vomiting blood, violent behaviour and very fast camera action to disorientate you but not a massive amount of gore. When it came to the cast they went for a largely English and Irish cast with Naomie Harris, Christopher Eccleston, Brendan Gleeson, a brief cameo from comedian David Schneider and introducing a very young Cillian Murphy who had acted in a variety of indie movies beforehand but 28 DAYS was his leap into the mainstream. Sporting a similar crazy haircut to one he may later exhibit in a future show and jumping straight in at the deep end with full frontal nudity from pretty much his first scene he becomes an unlikely but incredibly endearing lead character right from the start. He is unimposing and does not dominate at all but comes into his own by the end. Some of the acting by the supporting cast is a little off and it does sometimes run a bit slow but picks up when it needs to. Some of the scenes when they are travelling to Manchester are drawn out and go a bit stale but for me on the whole the first part, especially when Jim goes back to his family home and the last part of the movie at the Army base make up for it.

In conclusion I am a fan of 28 DAYS LATER, I like the portrayal of the infected and the idea behind them, the setting of the movie is fantastically bleak and feels very real. I do find most of the scenes with the infected unnerving... I would go so far as to say scary... even now. I don't like the fact that the film makers don't want the zombie movie tag even though the influences are glaringly obvious. The acting is quite dodgy even from Cillian Murphy who I really do rate as an actor these days but everyone has to start somewhere and he did his best. It really looks quite dated but I really enjoyed the portrayed threat of the infected and the soldiers which gives a great sense of unease and dread throughout. For me it is not up there with the greats but it has made it's mark and I give it an honourable score of 3 brains out of 5.