28 Days Later
Directed by Danny
Boyle
Starring Cillian Murphy, Christopher Eccleston
In Theaters
Danny Boyle (Trainspotting) and novelist Alex Garland (The Beach) bring to
us this updated retelling of the old 'Zombies take over the world' bit with
very good results. An animal liberation brigade break into a lab trying to
free a bunch of chimps from captivity. Despite the
wimpy, bewildered doctor telling them over and over again, "They are
infected, don't do that, yadda yadda", they let one out, and set off a
plague that infects anyone with rage and bloodlust in 20 seconds. (You know
what I mean- bulging red bleeding eyes, piercing screaming and a taste for
human flesh and blood! ) 28 days after this occurs, a bicycle
messenger who awakes from a coma after being hit by a car finds a world gone
slightly array, to say the least. Influences run the gauntlet from Omega
Man all the way up to Romero's Dawn and Day Of The Dead. Despite running
out of steam by the time it reaches it's climax, it still has some great
scenes and images to throw at you. The church scene is one, and seeing
this guy walking blindly through the empty streets of London, reading
large memorial boards of the victims and old newspaper covers, yelling for
anyone that can hear him,has more impact the most of the lame ass attempts at
horror these days, while the pounding music just adds to the despair and
bleakness of a man thrown into a world in which humanity turned on itself
from something it created. My only complaints are that the ending is weak
and it runs of of steam 3/4 of the way through, but in comparison to what
is being released as 'horror' these days, it's a blessing to the
genre.
-Greg Dellaria