Inner Goldblum

Viewers and horror fans alike have taken issue with 28 Days Later (2002, Danny Boyle). Oft known for revolutionizing zombie films with the addition of the fast zombie, 28 Days has made an impact. The trouble? Many an audience member would complain that this is not, in fact, a zombie movie.

must go faster

No, the monstrous creatures that attack and maul victims are not the living dead, they are the infected. They are contaminated humans, plagued by Rage, a disease that preys on an instinct already present in the human race, exacerbating it to the point of mania. They have not died and awoken from their eternal slumber to plod and shuffle and search for brains. They are not zombies. So what?! Who cares, anyway?  What’s in a name, after all? Technicalities.

28 Days Later follows Jim (Cillian Murphy) as he awakens in hospital to find himself in a new and terrifying world, one of infection and mindless violence. He teams up with Selena (Naomie Harris) and the two try to survive in an apocalyptic wasteland, infused with human monsters from both ends of a very wide spectrum. Silent, still shots of London’s empty roads are haunting. The city’s skyline gone dark sets an eerie mood from the start. The director favored Canon XL1 cameras, and the tones tend towards acidic yellow hues and pale, colorless greys. This lends a sickly pallor to the film, suggesting subtlely of the world’s diseased state. This film is clever in it’s use of social commentary. Danny Boyle used images from his research into events of social unrest. He has noted certain shots were inspired by photographs he had seen from Rwanda and Sierra Leone. Boyle has recreated these images from moments of genocide and slaughter. One such scene involves Jim stumbling across the dead body of a woman and her dead child, a chilling image that calls to mind a recurring theme in the film, ‘people killing people’.

Director Danny Boyle and screenwriter Alex Garland have given nods to classic zombie films, paying homage to Romero’s gems and a number of other works. They’ve chosen to modernize the concept of zombies by preying on the idea of a blood borne illness that spreads alarmingly fast and inhibits it’s victims in an Ebola-like way, but activating that anger factor, a psychological element. The infected are a fast moving horde, splattered with gore and dripping with blood. Their faces hemorrhage, their bodies are emaciated, but their speed is frenetic and frightening. The scenes in which our characters (Jim, Cillian Murphy, Selena, Naomie Harris, and other skilled players) are pursued by the packs of infected are chilling. Much of these moments are shot in tilted shadows, camera angles askew and off putting. often we see only the silhouettes of monsters approaching at breakneck speed, and the inner Jeff Goldblum in us all mumbles ‘must go faster. must go faster!’. Close up shots of the infected are just as impactful, as their pallid features are obscured by eyes and noses gushing blood, not cheery red Argento blood, but dark and messy and splattered blood.

28 Days Later is an energetic and exciting film, with some serious suspenseful action. That being said, it also manages to have some very tender moments full of genuine emotion, reminding the audience of the other side of human nature. This film is smart and frightening. I recommend it in a dark room without commercial breaks. Take the time to watch the real thing, unedited, and give it the time it deserves to enjoy. There’s lots to absorb here, and it plays on some surprisingly heavy themes. If you’re not in it for themes, enjoy some really epic scenes involving some truly memorable effects and scares. Maybe it’s too soon to be a classic, at just over ten years old, but I think this one is destined to last.