28 Days Later (2003)
Directed by Danny Boyle
Written by Alex Garland
Starring Cillian Murphy, Noah Huntley, Naomie Harris, Brendan Gleeson, Christopher Eccleston
Release Date June 27th, 2003
In 2003, while the masses sought out mindless entertainment real film fans were eagerly anticipating the release of a much buzzed about British horror film that portended the end of the world. Oh yeah and it's got zombies. 28 Days Later, from Trainspotting auteur Danny Boyle, was released some 6 months earlier worldwide, creating an anticipation among American horror and indie film fans. When 28 Days Later finally reached the States, it had not lost any of the buzz.
The Plot
In a scenario that likely made Republicans smile, a group of animal activists break into a research facility and release a group of monkeys who they believe are being abused. Unfortunately, the monkeys happen to be infected with a disease that the doctors call the rage virus. The infection is passed by blood and when the monkey bites a human, it takes little more than 30 seconds before that person becomes a mindless flesh-eating zombie. The zombies can be killed like any normal human being but they are also excessively quick and strong.
Within 28 days, the virus has spread throughout the whole of Britain. Only a few lucky people remain uninfected. One of the uninfected is Jim (Cillian Murphy) who has just awakened from a coma to find the hospital entirely empty. He then finds the neighborhood around the hospital empty, then finally all of London. That is until he stumbles into a church filled with zombies.
Jim escapes with the aid of a pair of survivors, Mark (Noah Huntley) and Selena (Naomie Harris). They give Jim the 411 on what has happened since his coma and then accompany Jim to his parent's home where he finds his parents dead. It's not long before the zombies arrive there and Mark is killed by Selena after he is bitten. As she has explains to Jim, if someone is infected you have only seconds to kill them before they turn. She won't hesitate to kill Jim if the same happens to him.
The two then venture out to find new shelter and stumble upon a father and daughter (Brenden Gleeson and Megan Burns) who are hiding out in what remains of their apartment building. Though they have had little to no interaction with the outside world, they have heard what they believe is a recorded message on the radio about some military officers who may have a cure for the virus. Whether that is true or not, the soldiers at least offer protection from the zombies and that is good enough to get them on the road. Once arriving at the military base, they find a ramshackle crew who is no more well prepared than they are.
When 28 Days Later arrived in theaters in 2003, it arrived in the wake of September 11th, 2001. It arrived in America in a moment of great panic, fear, and paranoia. Newspapers and TV broadcasts stoked the flames with stories about Anthrax in the mail, Monkeypox potentially becoming airborne, and the looming specter of terrorism, violent, biological, or otherwise. Thus, a movie about a fast spreading virus leaving city streets littered with bodies and the detritus of abandon, was one that felt immediate and relevant. Without intending to, director Danny Boyle had tapped the zeitgeist in a most urgent fashion.
Though the zombie thing gives the film a far-fetched feeling, the grave fears of terrorism and disaster comes in Boyle's camerawork that has a mind’s eye feeling to it. It's unsettling the way in which the camera, under the guidance of future Academy Award winner Anthony Dod Mantle, becomes like a dream from your own mind. The washed out look of 28 Days Later feels like it comes from your subconscious, formed by your own fears and anxiety the state of the world.
There is no camp in 28 Days Later, nothing that breaks the immersion. Danny Boyle's incredible vision is unrelenting. Where other horror films tend to undercut the horror with a sense of bleak humor, Danny Boyle shows no interest in letting the audience get comfortable or take a breath. The atmosphere of 28 Days Later is oppressive and all encompassing until it reaches the ending. Only once the credits have begun to roll are we in the audience able to relieve the tension. A cleansing breath finally comes once the lights began to come up but, for me, the visceral effect of 28 Days Later lasted until the following day when I was finally able to shake it from my subconscious. That's just how effective 28 Days Later is. Even today, 22 years later, the experience of 28 Days Later on the big screen lingers in my mind, drawing me back to that anxious, post 9/11 world.
