28 Days Later Year: 2002 Director: Danny Boyle Written by: Alex Garland Threat: Infection Weapon of Choice: Blood Based upon: original IMDb page:

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28 Weeks Later

Rish's Reviews
Tyranist and I both have a soft spot for End of the World movies. I think he would have enjoyed this one.
So, a bunch of misguided animal activists (is there any other kind?) release a plague- infected chimpanzee from the lab where it is being experimented on, and the plague spreads like wildfire, infecting all of Britain, and perhaps the world. The plague, transmitted through blood, causes the victim to fly into an insane, red-eyed rage, killing and/or infecting anyone they come in contact with. Our poor hero, a bike messenger injured in an accident, awakens in a London hospital only to find no one around, the city in shambles, and very few living humans trying to find a way to escape the teaming infected.
I saw this many moons ago, on its opening weekend here in the good old U.S.ofA., imagining I'd be among the only few to go see it. I was pleasantly surprised to find the theater more than half full, and encouraged to hear how well it did on that weekend, and the weeks that followed. They say it made its entire budget back that first weekend, and that's nice to hear. It would seem there is, in this late age, still such a thing as word-of-mouth.
One of the reasons I didn't think people would go see it was because it took place in England, with British actors, accents, and sensibilities. Impressively, I only heard one person complain, and he was a moron.
Also, I thought audiences would avoid it because it had no recognizable stars. In fact, Danny Boyle, the director (famous for Trainspotting) was the only "name" associated with it. The cast, limited as it is, is quite good, however, and all-too-believable because their faces were unfamiliar to me. Our bike messenger hero, Jim, hooks up with Mark and Selena, two young people who've learned to live hard or die hard in the grim, changed world, and later Hannah, a beautiful little girl, and her honourable father Frank (Brendan Gleeson of Braveheart and A.I.). And for most of the film, that's it.
There are moments when the film is really quite sweet and life-affirming (one moment comes to mind where London lies in ruins and the olde hymn "Abide with Me" is sadly sung. Conversely, there are such nihlistic and icy-cold moments where you wonder if maybe the human race is meant to die out. You probably wouldn't guess there can be such a thing as an optimistic apocalypse flick, but they come in all colours. The first half of this one is reminiscent of Dawn of the Dead, while the second half reminded me of Day of the Dead. Still, there was a newness to it all and a fresh take on the subject. It had great music, a powerful electronic score by someone named John Murphy. One scene, where a character we've grown to love is infected, was so powerful and sad that it was nearly impossible to watch. Yes, I cried. What are you going to do about it?
The film is quite dark, and can be really, really gross. While not terrifying, it was scary, and was quite disturbing. There is a moment about halfway through where one of the characters decides to go off exploring by himself (if it were a female character, I would have called this a You Stupid Bitch, You Deserve To Die moment, but I guess I can't since it was a guy). It also had full male nudity in the first five minutes (which isn't really something to recommend it, just something you don't see in 99% of movies).
The only major complaint I have of 28 Days Later is that it was shot on digital video instead of film, and looks really washed out and grainy from time to time. It may be that they were making a statement with that, but sometimes all it said to me was, "Poor bastards weren't able to afford film. What a shame." I don't know if that'll hamper the enjoyment of the average moviegoer, though.
28 Days Later is a great, gritty, artistic film. Scary, disturbing, profound. Nice. I heartily recommend it.
Note: Though I'm not going to give it a Bad Title Skull, they probably could have named it something a bit more in the genre, and a little less in keeping with Sandra Bullock rehab movies. I'll bet in Italy they call it something really cool.

The tyranist's thoughts
Tough to add to what Rish has already said. I didn't get around to this one for a long time even though this is one of my favourite types of movies. So favourite, that there was almost a second web site with a different friend called Apocalypse Now. Sort of ironic if you remember that the original name of this site was The Horror . . . the Horror.
Anyway, the only thing this one really lacked that the average apocalyptic movie has is the desperate loneliness. There were a few scenes right at the beginning where he was wandering around London completely alone, but the overwhelming loneliness really settled in for me.
Plot-wise, this is well-crafted and very compelling. The story is always interesting (a problem for some apocalyptic movies) and it never holds back. Very bleak at times and then at moments happy, in exactly the way happiness is found in the midst of the darkest of situations, grasped and held and unwillingly let go.
The DVD features two alternate endings that really aren't all that different from the theatrical ending, but more importantly it features something they call the Radical Alternative Ending' in which the entire last third of the movie would have been so completely different it is amazing to know that they even thought it possible as late in the game as they did. If you have the DVD, you must check this out. If anything, the alternate vision and possibility is bleaker and more desperate. Very nice.
The acting was very good. I hope that we can see the cast again. The sets were amazing. as well. All in all, there is everything to recommend this one. If you haven't already, do so.

Total Skulls: 13

Sequel
Sequel setup
Rips off earlier film
Horror film showing on TV/in theater in movie
Future celebrity appears
Former celebrity appears
Bad title
Bad premise
Bad acting
Bad dialogue
Bad execution
MTV Editing
OTS
Girl unnecessarily gets naked
Wanton sex
Death associated with sex
Unfulfilled promise of nudity
Characters forget about threat
Secluded location
Power is cut
Phone lines are cut
Someone investigates a strange noise
Someone runs up stairs instead of going out front door
Camera is the killer
Victims cower in front of a window/door
Victim locks self in with killer
Victim running from killer inexplicably falls
Toilet stall scene
Shower/bath scene
Car stalls or won't start
Cat jumps out
Fake scare
Laughable scare
Stupid discovery of corpse
Dream sequence
Hallucination/Vision
No one believes only witness
Crazy, drunk, old man knows the truth
Warning goes unheeded
Music detracts from scene
Death in first five minutes
x years before/later
Flashback sequence
Dark and stormy night
Killer doesn't stay dead
Killer wears a mask
Killer is in closet
Killer is in car with victim
Villain is more sympathetic than heroes
Unscary villain/monster
Beheading
Blood fountain
Blood spatters - camera, wall, etc.
Poor death effect
Excessive gore
No one dies at all
Virgin survives
Geek/Nerd survives
Little kid lamely survives
Dog/Pet miraculously survives
Unresolved subplots
"It was all a dream" ending
Unbelievably happy ending
Unbelievably crappy ending
What the hell?