28 Days Later
2002
Director: Danny Boyle
Cast Includes: Cillian Murphy, Naomie Harris, Meggan Burns, Brendan Gleeson, Noah Huntley, Christopher Eccleston
Screenplay: Alex Garland
The Sunday Times (November 3rd, 2002):
28 Days Later opens inside a primate research centre. Three animal liberationists have broken in and are wandering through a dark lab full of caged and enraged chimps. They find one poor creature wired up to a bank of television screens. He's being drip-fed images of human violence: mobs on the rampage, police attacking demonstrators. A scientist stumbles in and begs the intruders not to release the chimps from their cages - they've been infected, he says. "With what?" one of the liberationists asks. "Rage," comes the ominous reply.
Oops, too late. Monkey bites man, Infected man bites man. And twenty-eight days later, Britain is a nation of corpses, collapsed public services and enraged zombie-like creatures - which cynics might think is a pretty apt metaphor for our times. To this new world awakes our handsome hero, Jim (Cillian Murphy), from a coma in a hospital bed. He walks the deserted streets of London until rescued from an assault by "the infected" by two survivors, Selena (Naomie Harris) and Mark (Noah Huntley).
Boyle's film, with a screenplay by Alex Garland, echoes every zombie and Day of the Triffids-style film you've ever seen. He has been keen to make it a distinctly British affair, filling the screen with national symbols like Big Ben and black cabs, but it has a sylistic grit and exuberant gore that's usually missing from the zombie genre. And these zombies are your worst nightmare: they're not the kind that plod along like sleepwalkers. They can run like pumas and puke blood in your face, There are plenty of moments when your heart leaps in your mouth and your bottom leaves your seat - or should that be the other way around? You breathe a sigh of relief when it's all over.
The central weakness of the film is the characters: they don't have much in the way of personality, and none of the cast has a powerful screen presence. Even Christopher Eccleston, as an army officer, seems muted.
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updated february 2010