I was later given the DVD of
28 Days Later
as a
gift by
another friend who knew that I liked zombie movies. My cries of
“This
is not a zombie movie” again fell on deaf ears.
A year later, going through my DVD collection, I ran across 28
Days Later. It was unopened, and I decided to watch it again.
Had I not, I would have missed out on a very good, not a zombie, movie.
28 Days Later
begins with a group of animal rights activists breaking into an animal
testing facility to free their primate cousins from experimentation.
They fail to take heed when a scientist warns them that the primates
are infected with a virus named “rage”.
The
female activist wants to pat, hold, and cuddle a cute monkey so she
opens the cage - and gets bitten by the same cute monkey. After about
12 seconds, she becomes infected with the virus and goes absolutely ape
(I know, bad pun.) but does not become a zombie.
28 Days
Later is not, you see, just a catchy title. Our hero,
Jim (Cillian Murphy) wakes up from a coma to find that he is alone,
very alone, freakishly alone. After wandering around a very deserted
London, Jim walks into a church to find a large amount of
bodies
just lying around the pews. He makes the mistake of saying
“Hello” and
finds himself being chased by some rather vicious folks - but not
zombies.
Jim is saved by Selena (Naomie
Harris) and company and is later joined
by Frank (Brendan Gleeson) and his daughter Hannah (Megan Burns) as
they travel to Manchester in search of survivors, and a supposed cure
for the virus. Once there however, their troubles are just
beginning.
Without
giving too much of the action away, writer and director Alex
Garland and Danny Boyle have given us a very compelling film that
should make us think about the dangers of biohazards that could be
released and spread in today’s socio-political climate. It
should not,
however, make us think about zombies.
28 Days Later
is a great film about a blood-borne virus that has horrifying
psychological and physical side effects.
It is about the human will to survive at all costs. It is about what
each and every one of us could become if we were to leave our rage
unchecked. In case you may not have been paying attention, though, it
is not about zombies. Question
or comment about 28 Days Later? Contact us!
Review by Zombie Master Lee R.
Take
me back to movie review homepage!
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