28 Days Later

UK Release Date. 1 November 2002
Certification. 18
Running Time. 1 hour 53 mins
Director. Danny Boyle
Cast. Megan Burns, Christopher Eccleston, Brendan Gleeson, Naomie Harris, Cillian Murphy. 
Rating. 77%

Review.

Released two years after The Beach, and having become disillusioned with the mainstream studio filmmaking process [A Life Less Ordinary was a far from enjoyable experience apparently], Danny Boyle returned with a film that reinvented the zombie apocalypse genre. Technically speaking the hordes are not undead, but infected with Rage - a seemingly incurable virus that transforms humans into feral, blood-thirsty, flesh-eating abominations.

Directed in the director’s trademark high-energy style, and with a screenplay written by Alex Garland, Boyle blends elements of horror and drama with science fiction. Utterly unforgiving, 28 Days Later gave the horror genre a shot of pure adrenaline.

The film opens with a brief prologue that reveals the source of the virus; a group of animal rights activists misguidedly release infected chimpanzees from a laboratory. The film then leaps forward 28 days to a radically changed world. Bike courier, Jim (Cillian Murphy) awakes from a coma in a deserted hospital. He staggers into the empty streets. London is deserted and civilisation has apparently collapsed.

Shot on grainy, consumer-grade digital video and steeped in despair; 28 Days Later portrays post-apocalyptic England in a raw, visceral, documentary manner. But it is the human drama that elevates Boyle’s film - survival becomes secondary to trust and morality.

The climax of the film - a five-minute nerve-shredding action sequence in torrential rain and with a berserk, red-eyed infected rampaging through the country mansion, accompanied by the pulsating In the house - In a heartbeat - is an astonishing piece of precision filmmaking. Economical in the extreme, Boyle ensures every shot and cut counts for something. 

Dark and disturbing, 28 Days Later is ultimately inspiring in its affirmation of basic human values. The idea of a pandemic creating a society broken down by rage is even more relevant now, than it was at the time of the film’s release.