28 Days Later (2003)

Review by Josh Bozeman
Written on: September 7, 2003 at 3:45 AM. CT.

The best word I could use to describe 28 Days Later? Gripping. That's as good a word as any. This was a really enjoyable movie.

The movie starts out with some crazy (sorry, but let's be honest!) animal righs activists who let monkeys lose...the monkeys are infected with rage, a fast spreading, quickly fatal disease that soon spreads across London and around the world, wiping out nearly the entire population of London and other big cities (or so reports claim.)

We meet Jim (who is very naked- great for the ladies out there, I guess), who awakens from a coma in an empty hospital, turned upside down by people either fleeing the city or people infected with rage who turned psychotic. See, rage is a good name for the disease, since it quickly turns its victims into zombie- like beings who have a hunger to kill anyone in their path.

So, Jim grabs some cokes from the ripped open coke machine and procedes to look for other survivors...having no idea what happens, it's pretty cool seeing London totally desereted (all done without cgi effects, just early morning shoots, begging bar patrons to stay out of the shots), wondering what exactly happened. We know the rage was clearly set loose on the population, but we're not sure of the total devastation or how many died...or how far the disease spread. That all makes for great suspense, as we see if Jim will find other survivors and what he'll run into while trying to locate these people.

Jim, unfortunately meets up with zombies, but is saved by Selena and Mark.

I'll leave off with the story there...only to say that Selena, Jim, and a few other survivors must make it to safety, while doing everything they can to kill the 'zombies' in their path.

28 Days Later is very well shot...the direction is nice. It has a real look to it, thanks to the use of digital cameras instead of film. When the movie first started (I saw the movie in the afternoon by myself, with only 2 others in the entire place), I could tell it wasn't shot in the states...it had a English feel to it, I think. Once the characters start talking, and they have accents- I guess it's pretty obvious. The look of the settings is very European in my opinion as well. It's amazing how everyshot (even wide shots of London and large highways in England) are totally deserted, it really lends a lot to the overall feeling of creepiness and unease that makes the film work.

The acting, by unknowns (at least to me) is really good. Selena and Jim, the main characters- are really well drawn out characters, with their own distinctive personalities- both actors do a very good job. The other actors, who makes up the rest of the case, are just as good.

This is a unique movie, in that the zombie genre doesn't pop up that often. Some might not call it a zombie movie, because it's not at all cheesy to me, but I would surely place it in the genre. That's not a bad label, as some would say. The film fits very nicely among other great 'living dead' films- Night of the Living Dead coming to mind right away. This movie is far better than any other movie I've seen of the genre tho.

Suspense around every corner, some nice plot twists, and characters that are easily likeable- 28 Days Later delivers what it sets out to...very enjoyable film that I could easily watch again on DVD anytime. .