28 Days Later Movie Review

28 Days Later [28 Days Later...] (2002)

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Written by: Alex Garland
Directed by: Danny Boyle
Starring: Cillian Murphy, Naomie Harris, Christopher Eccleston, Brendan Gleeson, Megan Burns
Rated: R
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Plot
Four weeks after a mysterious, incurable virus spreads throughout the UK, a handful of survivors try to find sanctuary.

Verdict
This is an apocalypse movie first, a drama second, and a zombie movie third. With a focus on how people act and react when the world ends, this creates a plot based on human drama. The zombies just act as the catalyst. With a look that appears like an older documentary, this gives each shot a sense of being there in the moment. While you could call this a horror movie, the story is too smart. Horror movies usually rely on tropes and predictability. This is just a great movie all around.
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Review
This was Garland's first screenplay and his next screenplay, Sunshine, would also be directed by Boyle. Garland also wrote Ex Machina and Dredd. Garland's inspiration was George A. Romero's Night of the Living Dead film series and John Wyndham's 1951 novel The Day of the Triffids.

Activists wanting to free chimpanzees unwitting release a virus. Twenty-eight days later Jim (Cillian Murphy) wakes up in an abandoned hospital. As Jim leaves the hospital bewildered and confused, it seems that all of London is abandoned. He might be the last person left in the world. The question is what happened. This creates such a mood with a city deserted.

Cillian Murphy plays Jim

This is show with DV cameras on the London streets, and that makes this look older than it is. A lot of the shots are very close, making this feel like a documentary with someone holding the camera in the middle of the action. The style adds energy to the action.

When Jim enters a church, he's approached by something that seems possessed. He flees, saved by two people who reveal what happened and that everyone is dead. Jim's not ready to accept this, further horrified when Selena (Naomie Harris) tells him you must be ready to kill and leave others behind to survive.

With fast moving zombies, this movie is intense. Any time we see the zombies, the tension increases and your heart beats faster. Part of what makes this movie good is that it's an apocalypse movie first. The zombies are secondary. Zombie movies fail when there's nothing else to them other than the spectacle. In this we have characters trying to survive and coping with the thought that the world is over. There will never be another book written or movie filmed.

Naomie Harris, Cillian Murphy, Megan Burns, Brendan Gleeson play Selena, Jim, Hannah, Frank

Jim and Selena meet Frank (Brendan Gleeson) and his daughter Hannah (Megan Burns). They decide to drive to a camp. Frank gets infected, and the way it happens is so benign, in contrast to how it's typically portrayed. There's no way to be completely safe. Worse than the infection, the living aren't any more comforting. With society in upheaval people regress to base instincts. The soldiers that Jim, Selena, and Hannah encounter are only out for themselves. It's their way to cope with the situation, but that doesn't excuse it.

Jim is the antithesis. He saves Selena's life because she saved his, but to do so he's become a killer. In this world the rules don't apply. There's no way to be completely good, it's just a matter of surviving your current situation.

It's an intense movie that knows to focus on the human drama instead of just on zombies. With the monsters quick moving, anytime they appear immediately makes any scene arresting. With the look, this feels more real than you might like.