Movie Review: 28 Days Later · 12:34am Nov 11th, 2020
I am not usually a fan of zombie movies or the like. They're a type of monster that's never quite appealed to me. I've never been tempted to see "Night of the Living Dead" or its imitators, and my enjoyment of games like Dead Rising and Resident Evil is about as far as I'm usually willing to go in regard to engaging with the genre of zombie horror.
But I'd heard some real praise for this movie from the early 2000s, and when my father had rented it from Netflix I decided I really had nothing *better* to do the day he watched it, so the both of us sat down to try out "28 Days Later" and see if Danny Boyle's film would offer new insight or enjoyment of the zombie movie for me.
We open in a research lab somewhere in Britain. A group of animal-rights activists break in to find several chimpanzees in cages, and one of the apes being experimented on, Clockwork Orange-style. They work to free the captive ape, despite the desperate pleading of a researcher that the animals are infected with "Rage"... and the freed chimp promptly attacks the nearest activist, who then goes into a mindless rage and attacks the others...
Twenty-eight days later, a man named Jim (Cillian Murphy) wakes up from a coma, to find the hospital completely abandoned. Beyond that, the entire city of London seems deserted too! Wandering the streets, looking for any sign of life amid signs of catastrophe, Jim nearly is killed when he wanders into a church and is then chased by a horde of infected people. He only manages to escape thanks to the help of two other survivors, Selena (Naomi Harris) and Mark (Noah Huntley). They fill him in on what he's missed: that the virus (spread via blood) has spread through the country, possibly even the world as a whole.
Jim, horrified, wants to find out what happened to his parents, and at his request the group travels to his family's home in Deptford... where, sadly, he finds that they have committed suicide. That night, Jim lights a candle as he mourns, and the glow attracts more infected - and when Mark is bitten in the assault, Selena swiftly kills him before he can "turn".
Forced by circumstance to remain together, Selena and Jim travel back into the city, where they come across lights on in Balfron Tower in East London. Having to flee a horde of infected, they are saved by the inhabitants of the place: former cab driver Frank (Brendan Gleeson) and his daughter Hannah (Megan Burns). Frank is happy to have some new company but his supplies are running low; however, he and the others discover a military broadcast coming from Manchester promising aid to survivors. With no other options available, the group decides to set out and find if the broadcast is true.
Setting out in Frank's old cab, the ride out of London is a close call as they very nearly get caught by a horde of infected, but just manage to get away. Stocking up on supplies from an abandoned supermarket (a very fun and entertaining sequence) the group begins to bond as they travel the countryside. However, upon arriving at the blockade, they find the place seemingly deserted.
Frank, upset, kicks a wall, and winds up infected when a drop of blood from an infected corpse falls into his eye. Just as he "turns," soldiers suddenly appear and gun him down. Jim, Selena, and a shell-shocked Hannah are all taken by the soldiers to their base - a fortified mansion, under the command of Major Henry West (Christopher Eccleston). He welcomes them and promises them protection and a new start... but in short order this offer turns out to be false, as West has mainly kept his men from despair and suicide by promising them women.
Jim, when he refuses to be complicit with this, is taken prisoner but is able to escape execution. In a bloody and chaotic finale, Jim sneaks back to the mansion and takes brutal, violent revenge on West's men - ranging from setting loose a captive infected to slaughter them, to ambushing them, and (in one memorably horrific moment) gouging the eyes of a would-be rapist. (Little wonder that Hannah initially thinks Jim's an infected, honestly. XD) The group attempts to escape in Frank's cab, but West surprises them and shoots Jim - though Hannah is able to take revenge for her father by throwing the cab into reverse and causing a crash that sends West thrown to the remaining infected.
The movie concludes, after *another* twenty-eight days have passed, with Jim recovering from his wound at a remote cottage. The infected are dying of starvation, and when Jim and company spot a fighter jet scoping the area, they work to construct a banner to alert it to their presence. With newfound hope for the future, the survivors watch the jet pass above them after it flies over their sign.
So, that is the story of "28 Days Later". What did I think of it?
...Honestly, this was a movie that was merely "all right" to me. It's definitely got some great sequences in it, for sure: the iconic moment early in the film when Jim wanders the desolate London is brilliantly shot and unnerving; even though the audience *knows* what's happened, you're still put off by the sheer emptiness of the setting and are in dread for when the inevitable zombie comes along. I also quite enjoyed the mansion sequences of the movie's final act, and felt that they made for a great throwback to a Gothic horror story.
All of that being said though, I do have problems with this movie. One of which is that, honestly, I didn't feel much connection to our main protagonists, Jim in particular. Cillian Murphy's performance isn't *bad* by any means (I must be blunt, I was quite moved by the scene in which he finds his parents' bodies), but after a certain point he was just kind of "there" for me as a main character. The actor who made the most impact on me was Brendan Gleeson as Frank. He brought a lot of heart to the story, with his fatherly care for Hannah, his attempt at having hope for a way out, and the role he eventually took on as a kind of "group dad" to Jim and Selena. I was really disappointed to see him killed. (Though Megan Burns as Hannah did some superb acting in the aftermath of that, and I must admit kept me engaged through the finish of the story too.)
I should also tip my hat to Christopher Eccleston as Major West, as he made for a reasonably compelling (and suitably creepy when the truth comes out) antagonist, but at the same time I'd seen his type before in "Day of the Triffids" and felt that the tension in *that* series delivered more effectively than here. Perhaps the movie would have done better if it had built up more to the big reveal as to what West and his men have in mind... as it is you can pretty easily infer "these are bad guys" almost immediately after they show up.
(And also, on the subject of Jim once more... I'm kinda torn about his rampage at the climax of the movie. It just seems a little, inconsistent to me, or maybe under-examined. In his entire attack on West's manor fort, Jim *really* goes to some vicious lengths, understandably freaking out Selena and Hannah - the latter even tries to stab him if I recall before learning he's not actually infected. I do kind of think the movie missed an opportunity of some kind by not doing more with how his rampage could have affected his friends or even Jim himself.)
Another issue I kind of have with this movie, and this is more of a nitpick in regard to the movie's "infected"... and that's the realization I had that, if the zombies in this movie are still "alive" for all intents and purposes, why does it take them so damned long to finally starve? The infected in this movie don't even try to EAT their victims, they just mindlessly claw and tear into them when they get their hands on one. What are they doing for food or water in the meantime? I know that really, I shouldn't look too closely into this plot threat, but I still can't help but feel that - frightening as sprinting zombies are - that I've seen more effective depictions of the walking dead elsewhere.
...That, and also, I'm a wee bit uncomfortable with the fact that this movie's finale pretty much sidelines Selena (who we've seen be a pretty ruthless zombie killer) to a much more neutral role. And while I suppose the argument could be made that a) she's dealing with armed soldiers and not mindless ghouls, and b) she's got Hannah to worry about too, I don't know, this was just not something that sits too well with me upon reflection.
28 Days Later is, at the heart of the matter, a movie that definitely has some effective scenes, and the fact that it ends on a pretty unambiguously hopeful note is also much appreciated (even more so in light of some other zombie apocalypse works). But I'd be lying if I said that I'd strongly recommend this movie unless it were to dedicated fans of the zombie movie, or to those with a strong curiosity for this movie already. It's a decent movie with some good creepy moments, some solid side characters, and an exciting (if potentially flawed) climax that brings some good blood and scares.
Probably would rate this one a five out of ten, even. Maybe a six if I'm being generous. It's just not really a movie that really lends itself to my sensibilities.
The whole zombie genre has never really appealed to me. Firstly it's just gross (there's only so much blood and guts I can handle, and it's why despite liking its script immensely I've yet to watch Aliens), and secondly zombies are just boring to me. Half the time they just shamble around mindlessly, and most of the conflict in modern works like The Walking Dead seem more focused on humanity's evils being kicked into overdrive by the apocalypse, at least from what little I know.
I much prefer movies with a monster that can actually outwit you, like Jurassic Park's Velociraptors, or an alien invasion-type story.
5396139
Well put. There's a reason why I've never watched The Walking Dead, I'll tell you that. The two zombie media that I *do* like are Resident Evil and Dead Rising, and that's because 1) the former has plenty of other monsters besides zombies, so it kind of keeps things more interesting, and 2) the latter's just over-the-top about it (and also having a pretty effective satirical point in the original game too).
Because really, zombies ARE boring. I think even slasher monsters like Jason Voorhees or Michael Meyers (and Michael is as blank as blank slates can be) have more personality and memorability to them. Give me a monster that has some form of cleverness, charisma or pathos any day of the week.
This is why Dresden style zombies are much more interesting to me. They don't have the subconscious limiters our bodies have, so they can afford to practically break their bodies serving whatever necromancer resurrected them. Also Dresden has something few other zombie stories have. A zombie T-Rex.
5396346
That's a good point. Both of them actually: the one about necromancy, and then the other for the zombie T-rex.