A science fiction based post-apocalyptic horror movie brings us to the United Kingdom with the Alex Garland written and Danny Boyle directed movie 28 Days Later (2002). Garland reportedly took inspiration from George A. Romero‘s Night of the Living Dead (1968), as reviewed here, it’s sequels, and the 1951 novel The Day of the Triffids as written by John Wyndham. The various locations across the United Kingdom countryside, along with the facts underpinning the zombies with skills in a barren land story, owe much to Wyndham.
A highly contagious virus studied in a Cambridge, England laboratory of Cambridgeshire county begins the story of 28 Days Later. A group of ecoterrorists free a chimpanzee infected with the aggression-inducing “rage virus” from this laboratory. Almost immediately, one of the terrorists becomes infected by the freed animal, succumbing to the infection and transmitting it to another terrorist. Within days, the virus induces an epidemic resulting in the collapse of society. Twenty-eight days later, we meet bicycle courier Jim at the abandoned St. Thomas’ Hospital in London as he awakens a coma suffered before the initial outbreak of the rage virus. Cillian Murphy portrayed Jim.
Jim wanders the streets of London before survivors Selena and Mark rescue him from infected humans that had chase him, Jim, into a church. The group learns that Jim’s parents had committed suicide during the outbreak when getting to the family home in the Deptford part of London. Before even much of an opportunity to process this blow, Selena must kill Mark upon Mark’s infection with the rage virus. Just moments later upon experiencing this at the frenetic pace of a rage infested zombie, Jim and Selena encounter cab driver Frank with his daughter Hannah at Balfron Tower in East London. Noah Huntley, Naomie Harris, Brendan Gleeson and Megan Burns portrayed Mark, Selena, Frank and Hannah, respectively.
It is news of supplies and the potential safety of a blockade in Manchester, as brought by Frank, that the previously unfathomable grouping take up a drive to a northwestern section of England. The apparent respite offered by this journey quickly gives way to new realities at the abandoned blockade. The fortified mansion under the command of Major Henry West, as portrayed by Christopher Eccleston, gives way to a new and insidious story of a society that’s died and a fresh hell of intended for Hannah. The subterfuge of the blockade giving way to the true intention of a barricade of sex slavery.
The angle of Sergeant Farrell, as portrayed by Stuart McQuarrie, and Jim’s opposition to combat the slavery gives 28 Days Later an adventure and humanity that sets the movie apart from the underpinnings one might expect of other more traditional movies with a zombie angle. The introduction of the Private Mailer character, which offers its own inhumane point-of-view, leads to an odd justice for the blockade to round out this particular storyline. The intrigue that brings the storyline to a close in Cumbria, England within earshot of a Finnish jetfighter flying overhead presents the answer to the question of survival raised from the beginning of the movie that this story has raised and the viewer deserved. Marvin Campbell portrayed Private Mailer.
There’s more done properly in the movie 28 Days Later to overcome what points against the film have been raised by critics, for example, on Rotten Tomatoes here. I give 28 Days Later as directed by Danny Boyle 4.25-stars on a scale of 1-to-5.
Matt – Saturday, October 28, 2023
Matt Lynn Digital 