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| 28
Days Later
Directed By: Danny
Boyle Plot
Summary - Review 1 - Review
2 - CURRENT REVIEWS
|
|
| Jim wakes up from a coma in a London hospital to find the hospital deserted - and the rest of London as well. By degrees he comes to learn that in the past 28 days, a blood-borne virus has been released from a research facility and swept across England, Paris and New York, killing many and turning most into murderous zombies. After coming across a handful of uninfected people, Jim and his companions go to Manchester, where they hear the uninfected are gathering. But they have more on their hands than just zombies...[TRAILER] Every summer film season needs a horror flick, and “28 Days Later” is the most daring and memorable addition to the genre in years. It starts with an ominous prologue, showing a band of animal rights activists breaking into an animal testing facility and freeing a monkey that a nameless scientist warns is “infected.” The animal lashes out, attacking its liberators, and the screen fades to black, with the tantalizing subtitle, “28 days later…” It is here that Jim (Cillian Murphy), later identified as an injured bike courier, awakes on a British hospital bed. He is the only one in the hospital and, as he wanders around a deserted London, apparently the only human in the city. Eventually he meets a handful of unaffected survivors, who first warn him about and then help him fight off those in the city infected with this disease – essentially contagious zombies who attack with zeal. In the end, the survivors set their sights on one goal: reaching the distant source of a radio transmission that promises the answers to this infection. Is “28 Days Later” a “zombie film?” Well, yes, but it is so much more. It is a science-fiction adventure, a thriller, a political commentary and a philosophical dialogue about existence. It is a summer film with intelligence and an incredible visual imagination, crafting an experience not of cheap thrills, but of genuinely real characters and a horrifying vision of the apocalypse. The lengthy plot description above is a testament to the rich and creative story created here. This is an adventure of epic proportions. In the early portions of “28 Days Later,” director Danny Boyle (“Trainspotting”) drowns the film in silence. In this desolate, baron city, silence is frightening enough in itself. And this end-of-the-world premise is not a shallow gimmick, but a chilling certainty that none of these characters is able to ignore. Boyle controls the pacing of this film brilliantly. It shifts from a film of mystery and raw horror to an action/adventure spectacle with grace, and Boyle limits the scenes of violence and carnage to maximize their effect. When the zombies attack, Boyle refuses to give the viewer a clear picture. Instead, he changes the speed and style of his filmmaking, uses jump cuts, and makes these attackers more terrifying thanks to their murkiness. Seeing these creatures clearly would never be as frightening as through shadows and lightening. The horror genre has been co-opted in recent years by slasher films, movies that have little interest in making one’s heart pound, but instead invest their time making audiences jolt and scream with flashy camerawork and on-screen gore. “28 Days Later,” to the contrary, achieves a terrifying emotional high that slasher films will never realize. First, it is squarely about characters. This is not a film about zombies, but a film about a small group of survivors, trying desperately to stay alive. Second, it is scary because these sympathetic characters are then thrown through the gauntlet of isolation and hopelessness. They have no one to rely on but themselves and, when these zombies do attack, they are relentless, ferocious, and uninterested in anything but fresh blood. Third, Boyle’s dark vision is so beautifully realized that “Apocalypse Now,” another brilliant film about humanity on the brink, frequently came to mind. But, what will truly linger in viewer’s minds is not the creepiness of these zombies, but rather that of the film’s humans. Two late twists in the film shroud humanity itself in a dark cloud of cynicism, and “28 Days Later” becomes something greater because it realizes, amid this hopelessness and despair, that not every survivor is interested in being a hero. This is the best kind horror film, where people fear its memorable imagery, but are equally unsettled and engaged by its cryptic thoughts. Edgar Allan Poe would love it.   More reviews, interviews, features and commentary at Zertinet.com Check out Reviews, Commentary, and More at Zertinet.com |
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