28 Days Later

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28 Days Later

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28 Days Later

Alex Palmer, Bindu De Stoppani, Brendan Gleeson, Christopher Eccleston, Cillian Murphy, Jukka Hiltunen, Junior Laniyan, Leo Bill, Luke Mably, Marvin Campbell, Megan Burns, Naomie Harris, Noah Huntley, Ray Panthaki, Ricci Harnett, Sanjay Rambaruth, Stuart McQuarrie, Toby Sedgwick

After breaking into a primate research facility, a group of animal rights activists discover caged chimps chained up before banks of screens displaying horrifying, violent images. Ignoring the warning...( read more  read more... )s of the terrified researcher who maintains that the chimps are infected, they begin to free the animals and are immediately subjected to a bloody attack from the enraged creatures. Twenty-eight days later, Cycle courier Jim awakes from a coma in the deserted intensive care unit of a London hospital. He wanders out into a church where he finds dead bodies piled in heaps on the chapel floor. A sudden explosion from a makeshift bomb heralds the arrival of fellow "survivors" Selina and Mark. They take Jim to safety and explain to him that this infection is transmitted by blood and overwhelms the infected victim with a murderous rage within seconds. Britain has been overrun, and they have no way of knowing if it has spread worldwide. Their only hope of survival may lie in the hands of a Manchester group of soldiers, as they claim to have the "answer" to infection and invite any survivors to join them at their blockade. Faced with no practical alternative, the group sets out northwards, unaware that the worst is yet to come.

Id: 10895355

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28 Days Later Recent Reviews
  • DrZeek
    October 5, 2009
    DrZeek
    Mark: What's your name?
    Jim: Jim.
    Mark: I'm Mark. This is Selena. Ok, Jim. I've got some bad news.

    A modern day zombie movie...well they're not technically zombies, they're infected. A quality take on the genre, with stylish, digi cam direction from Danny Boyle and good cha...( read more)racters. Very watchable, although it doesn't shine so well in the third act.

    The beginning of this film is particularly interesting and well handled. Jim, played by Cillian Murphy, awakens from a coma in an abandoned hospital. He soon realizes he is completely alone. The film then gives us empty streets of London, subtle music queues slowly creeping in, and the use of digital camera to provide a great isolated feel for Jim.

    Jim eventually comes across others still living in London. While some are regular scared people, the rest are infected victims of a virus, causing them to attack with no purpose and kill anything in their path. The film eventually turns into a road film of sorts, as a group travels to find any sort of safe haven.

    Jim: No, no. No, see, this is a really shit idea. You know why? Because it's really obviously a shit idea.

    Like all good zombie movies, it's not about the zombies, but about its characters and the reactions to their situation and how to deal with it. The lack of a true social structure, how people arrive at their true nature, and testing the hopes that people have left are all the kind of factors that play into this film. It doesn't have Romero style social commentary, but the handling of isolation and despair works well.

    This movie introduced the new style of "sprinting zombies" where they run, they slide, they hit humans and take a bite. New rules to the genre are always welcome, if handled effectively, and here, ones involving how to kill or become one of the infected lead to good scenes of tension.

    Danny Boyle, tackling yet another completely different genre, does a good job at creating a look for this film. The dark atmosphere, chaotic editing style of infected attacks, and solid horror film pacing is handled well. The use of digital camera makes the situations presented more effective, as does the very good soundtrack, which is now being used quite a bit in various movie trailers.

    As is a constant problem with Boyle's screenwriting collaborator Alex Garland, the stories third act has issues. Although the film plays out well enough, especially after repeated viewings, one can't help but wish there were other possible resolutions or places to take this concept.

    It's a good movie overall, made better by a unique presentation from Danny Boyle's direction, and solid work from the lead actors.

    Selena: He was full of plans. Have you got any plans, Jim? Do you want us to find a cure and save the world or just fall in love and fuck? Plans are pointless. Staying alive is as good as it gets.
  • SirPant
    September 24, 2009
    SirPant
    Nice to have a zombie film set in London, went a bit rubbish at the end though. Early scenes are a total rip off of the comic 'Zenith' that was realised in the early 90's in 2000AD and also the Day of the Triffids.
  • stopitgoaway
    August 25, 2009
    stopitgoaway
    Perhaps I'm a little biased. After all, this is set in the city I live and work in, and seeing Oxford Street and Piccadilly Circus, which I pass by every morning and which are usually teeming with crowds of people, completely empty was enough to send shivers down my spine. Usuall...( read more)y when you watch a movie like this it's located in some nondescript Midwestern village, which makes it easy to detach yourself from the events unfolding on screen. But seeing them occur in the place you call home is something that gives it an entirely new sense of reality, and one I was previously unaccustomed to.

    Still, judging 28 Days Later entirely on its merit as a film, it's easy to arrive at the conclusion that it's a fantastic achievement, as well as a coming-of-age of sorts for director Danny Boyle; I can't say the MTV-inspired vanity of The Beach, or the self-consciously trendy posturing of Trainspotting appealed to me, and to my shame I initially expected 28 Days Later to be given a similar treatment. Thankfully, my fears proved unfounded, discarded straight after a opening sequence which is at once effortless and fearsome. The rest of the movie was a joy. A terrifying joy, but a joy nonetheless.

    It's true that sometimes minimalism can be more effective than overblown bravado, and it's definitely true for this movie. It's the scenes of complete silence which get to you the most; an entire metropolis empty. The grainy picture serves to add a documentary-style quality to the film, which makes the whole situation seem almost too real to bear. Definitely a wise choice to film this on digital video.

    You will occasionally meet people who thought 28 Days Later wasn't 'scary' or 'gory' enough. These are the same people who will tell you that 2001 was 'boring', or that Memento was 'confusing'. Ignore them. Others didn't understand the purpose of the second half, or were confused by its change of pace, feeling that it distracted from the movie as a whole. However, I personally regard the second half as very important because, as another reviewer pointed out, it makes a very succinct point: What is scarier, the end of the world, or having the world repopulated by maniacs? That, I think, is where the real Horror of 28 Days Later lies.

    28 Days Later, like the Romero zombie flicks of yore, is ultimately an allegory of the days we are living in, an age in which we are constantly confronted with violence by the media (much like the ape right at the start of the film), where violence begets violence, and humanity faces an uncertain future. I applaud Danny Boyle's bravery in making 28 Days Later because he undoubtedly took a big commercial risk when the majority of the cinema-going public might prefer escapism to words of caution. Remember, Rage is a human-made disease. Quite the allegory there.

    Like most great masterpieces of their time, 28 Days Later has been misunderstood by a considerable amount of people. I have no doubt it will go down in history as a classic, the one movie which perfectly sums up the confused era we are living in. And even if you didn't like it, it would be advisable to give 28 Days Later another chance; it's a haunting experience when looked at from the right angle. Danny Boyle has many years left in him, I hope he'll continue making more movies like this.
  • kenstachnik
    April 18, 2009
    kenstachnik
    An extremely effective horror film. The digital cinematography combined with Boyle's direction provide this film with a chilling realism.
  • ceWEBrity
    January 19, 2009
    ceWEBrity
    About time I got around to seeing this! 28 Days Later is one of the most evocative, visually creative movies in 21st century horror, a ruminative dystopia flick with a master director at the helm. Spare, commanding and intelligent, it haunts again and again, not with overuse of j...( read more)ump scares or constant zombie violence, but the stinging reminders of a completely collapsed society. It's all perversely beautiful, in a way.

    Naomie Harris should get more work, horror or otherwise. Tia Dalma was the only interesting character by the time the second Pirates movie rolled around, and she's great here, conveying a huge range of attitudes without any sort of backstory to her name. You know that the character has lived through a lot simply based on how she acts in any given situation; callous and pragmatic when faced with the infected, but gut-churningly gentle toward the end when a young friend is threatened. It's a lively, humanistic turn, one that really enhances the movie. Cillian Murphy is good too, especially in the last half hour, when his character really gets to let loose. Performances of this caliber are always appreciated in a horror film because they raise the stakes so much more - it's a no-brainer, but if you care about the characters, you don't want them to die.

    The only perceivable problem with this is the kind of odd third-act shift, something that haunts almost every one of Danny Boyle's films. He strays far from the rage virus and shovels in this hamfisted metaphor about how people are the real monsters, which I've learned from every other horror movie ever. It is brought to a close pretty well, on a hopeful and aesthetically pleasing note, but the final minutes in the military complex won't ring true with all viewers.
  • melmarquez7
    December 1, 2009
    melmarquez7
    typically zombie-ish, but generally presented right timings at skirmishes
  • whisperkree
    November 30, 2009
    whisperkree
    I hated it . . . . but then I don't really like zombie movies anyway!
  • liquidstone14
    November 29, 2009
    liquidstone14
    Boyle's glacial, nerve-wrecking apocalyptic freak-out owes much of its success to a sharp, intelligent script, which keeps the scare tactics and character development in equal parts. Surprisingly not grounded in typical Hollywood morals where good guys and bad guys are catalogued...( read more) as soon as they're onscreen, 28 Days Later puts our very own humanity in a position where anyone can turn into death itself in a matter of seconds-- can you imagine how fast our survival instincts kick in, and how feeble our civilized sympathy turns once confronted by it? Less preoccupied by jump scares than it is with generating feelings of desolation and despair (but still creepy as hell) and anchored by four flat-out excellent performances-- that would be Eccleston, Murphy, Harris and Gleeson-- 28 Days Later is nothing short of a hypnotic, memorable piece of work, and definitely an instant classic in the zombie genre.
  • MovieGuruDude72
    November 27, 2009
    MovieGuruDude72
    The only real problem I have with zombie movies (other than the idiots who film them for $25) is that, really, there is not much room for originality. 28 Days Later is one of the very, very, very few zombie-esque movies that deliver a fresh idea with the rage infection. How they ...( read more)got those actors and actresses who got infected to act the way they did gave me cold chills for days. Most zombie movies make me laugh out loud hard and I love the carnage, but this one was entirely gripping. A top-notch cast also helped make this movie good. Cillian Murphy, Brendan Gleeson, Christopher Eccelston and Naomi Harris are all very talented. I highly reccomend this one.
  • captainsoso
    November 27, 2009
    captainsoso
    A geniusly and subtile mix of standard and audacious ideas that created a movie that is much more superior than last George Romero's productions!!
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