28 Days Later
Published May 10, 2005
In a bit, Jim clamors into a church figuring to find some sanctuary, or at least have a few questions answered. What he finds is a bunch of dead folks piled up. In a good holy crap moment, Jim says, "Hello" to find a couple of the dead guys not so dead and jumping up. From there until the second half of the film, it is a constant run from the zombies.
The zombies really work in this film. They are fast, furious, and vicious. Jim eventually teams up with some other survivors and they set about trying to figure out what to do. Boyle really does a great job of adding tension to the film and keeping the scares up.
Then the film changes.
The group is rescued by a gang of all male military types, living in a compound. Turns out the military types are a bunch of psychos and the film turns from being a zombie flick into being a stranded-in-a-compound-with-a-bunch-of-psycho-military-types kind of film. To make sure we know this is no longer a zombie flick, a big group of zombies launches an attack on the compound only to be massacred with machine guns and land mines.
This half of the film, I don't dig nearly as much. Zombie flicks always have trouble filling out their whole hour and a half time slot. Even with a good introduction of characters, and a slow build to zombie free-for-all there is still plenty of filler time. Here, the filmmakers seem to have decided that they might as well dump the zombies and give us some other tension filled concoction. But, there isn't really enough time to develop the military end of the story and it feels wrong.
It's too bad too, because that first half was really promising.
Mat Brewster is an American stumbling as an ex-pat through the streets of Shanghai. He is helped by his lovely wife and an enormous piles of bootleg DVDs. He is chronicling his adventures in the Shanghai Diaries and musing on pop culture at The Midnight Cafe.
- 28 Days Later
- Published: May 10, 2005
- Type: Review
- Section: Video
- Filed Under: Review, Video: Horror, Video: Thriller
- Writer: Mat Brewster
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I always thought that the big ironic theme of the movie was that the humans, who were first seen as saviors, end up to be far more monstrous than the zombies themselves.
Also, for more fast movin' zombies, check out the remake of Dawn of the Dead.
Too true, 28DL wasn't a zombie flick. What it was was pretty goddamn scary! It'd been a while since I was that affected by a film, but 28DL worked a number on my nerves and it was fantastic. Brilliant stuff. :)
nice job Mat and very scary movie that bothered me more than most for its relative plausibility and balanced view of human nature. I agree with Danw's very fine comment as well - call the movie "zombie-esque"
Of course they are technically not zombies. Danny Boyle has said many time they are virus infected and not zombies. I said all this at the begining of the post. I just don't buy it.
If you are going to make a movie about a virus, actually include some stuff about the virus in it. Why make it bloodborne? Why not airborne? Or have it exist on the skin so it passes through a touch. Or even have it bloodborne, but make it more like AIDS. It just doesn't make sense to me to say its a virus movie and then have those who are infected act exactly like zombies. So I'll continue to call it a zombie movie.
It is ironic to have the military guys turn out to be nearly as bad as the zombies. I liked the concept and even most of the execution. But tacked on to the end of a zombie movie it seemed a little strained. Like there wasn't enough time to develop that end of the story. Or maybe I was just mad because the zombies left.
All of that isn't to say I didn't like the film. It is quite scary and a very good thriller. But just because I liked it, in fact own it, doesnt mean I don't have some problems with it.
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I totally disagree with your otherwise good review. This is NOT a zombie flick therefore you can't use the zombie flick criteria. It is much scarier than a zombie flick. The crux of this film is the biohazardous nightmare that awaits us with the next incurable virulent viral outbreak.
This is a sci-fi horror.
These flesh-tearing monsters are all too alive. Mutaneous violence-craving killing machines. What I found striking was the correlation between the hemorrhagic nature of RAGE and today's killer bugs. Like Marburg and Ebola, this virus has some very serious affects on the human body.
The sheer isolation of the lone surviors and their edge of a knife precariousness is the real horror.
At any minute they too could become infected.
As for the para-military group they encounter, I think that was more symbolism into the true nature of man if left with nothing to lose.
They wanted the women (one of which was only 12 or so) and they would become murderous villians to get them.
In the end, the non-infected military group were no better than the virus-infected drones.