Director Danny Boyle and writer Alex Garland (currently scribing Halo) started it all with an idea. A communicable virus that infects it's host with a vicious rage. The infected become rabid--like zombies on crack--they stop at nothing.
28 Days Later is a creative take on the zombie genre. From the desolate opening sequence to the foreboding, time-ticking score, the film is a masterpiece. Boyle breeds isolation and panic simultaneously with sweeping shots of emptiness. The rage virus becomes an incurable evil through the lens of the camera. In contrast, those shots are rabid--quick, in your face shots.
The movie is fascinating and frightening in the same breath. The gore is wonderfully rendered; as are the settings our few survivors must traverse. Our cast includes newcomer Cillian Murphy and character great Brendan Gleeson. The unknowns are spot-on in their delivery.
The aesthetic of 28 Days Later is minimal, but dramatic. The film transcends the typical feeling of the genre. "Thinking man's horror" is how I once described it. Boyle takes a risk in not marketing to general audience and boy, does he deliver. Stripped of everything that keeps us human, Boyle evokes 'Lord of the Flies'--a scary thought in and of itself.
Tense and disturbing, but brilliantly executed, 28 Days Later is a modern, elegant take on my favorite horror genre.
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