Following on from my reviews of Alex Garland’s directorial works, Ex_Machina, Annihilation, and the recently released Men, I went back and looked at two of his earlier works as a writer alongside director Danny Boyle. Last time I tackled the 2007 sci-fi thriller Sunshine which was hugely instrumental in getting me into harder sci-fi, and now I’ll take a look at 28 Days Later, a film that laid the groundwork for my love of zombies, and also reignited interest in the zombie genre during the early 2000’s.
Jim (Cillian Murphy) is a bicycle courier in London. Having been hit by a car and knocked unconscious, Jim awakes to find himself as one of the only survivors of a deadly viral outbreak that causes its victims to become extremely aggressive. Teaming up with fellow survivors Selena (Naomie Harris), Frank (Brendan Gleeson), and Hannah (Megan Burns), the group travels north in the hopes of finding a survivor settlement that will take them in.
Boyle & Garland state that 28 Days Later is not a zombie movie, yet they also say they were inspired by a lot of the classic George Romero zombie movies and that they wanted to put a unique spin on the formula by not having the 'zombies' be the living dead, but instead be infected by a rabies-like virus that increases their aggression and speed. Made on a budget of just eight million dollars, 28 Days Later was not expected to be the sensation it was and inadvertently spawned a new style of zombie thriller wherein zombies were fast and considerably more threatening. Without 28 Days Later we wouldn’t have modern zombie culture as the genre had practically died out come the late 90’s, so mass media franchises like The Walking Dead would likely have not had the same success they achieved without it.
Speaking of which, I hadn’t watched 28 Days Later in such a long time that I never realised that The Walking Dead’s entire setup is basically the same as 28 Days Later. The first half of the story is significantly better than the second half, but 28 Days Later does a good job of trying to explore as much of the apocalypse as it can in such a short time frame. Opening with Jim exploring a deserted London, learning about the infection through Selena, exploring places like his family home, and meeting Frank & Hannah in their tower block. The point at which the film stops being as interesting to me is when the group arrive at the military outpost established by Major Henry West (Christopher Eccleston). This part is fine in the grand scheme of things, but I feel like this would have been better left to a sequel. None of the soldiers have any character to them, and West’s motivations seem kind of vague, problems which would have been solved by simply allowing more time to be spent with them.
Something that does become clear once the group reaches West's outpost though is the notion of, as West puts it 'People killing people'. The opening of the film is a montage of human aggression and violence, something that becomes echoed in the infected throughout the rest of the film. West believes that nothing has changed, that before the infection all he ever saw was people killing people, and since the infection it has been much the same. It's a nihilistic view to hold, but one that is echoed in Jim's own character arc as he eventually gives in to the violence in order to save his friends. This dopes lead me onto something of a negative point regarding the story though and that's the overly poetic language used. It feels out of place because normal people would never speak like that, especially in times like these.
Jim (Cillian Murphy) is a bicycle courier in London. Having been hit by a car and knocked unconscious, Jim awakes to find himself as one of the only survivors of a deadly viral outbreak that causes its victims to become extremely aggressive. Teaming up with fellow survivors Selena (Naomie Harris), Frank (Brendan Gleeson), and Hannah (Megan Burns), the group travels north in the hopes of finding a survivor settlement that will take them in.
Boyle & Garland state that 28 Days Later is not a zombie movie, yet they also say they were inspired by a lot of the classic George Romero zombie movies and that they wanted to put a unique spin on the formula by not having the 'zombies' be the living dead, but instead be infected by a rabies-like virus that increases their aggression and speed. Made on a budget of just eight million dollars, 28 Days Later was not expected to be the sensation it was and inadvertently spawned a new style of zombie thriller wherein zombies were fast and considerably more threatening. Without 28 Days Later we wouldn’t have modern zombie culture as the genre had practically died out come the late 90’s, so mass media franchises like The Walking Dead would likely have not had the same success they achieved without it.
Speaking of which, I hadn’t watched 28 Days Later in such a long time that I never realised that The Walking Dead’s entire setup is basically the same as 28 Days Later. The first half of the story is significantly better than the second half, but 28 Days Later does a good job of trying to explore as much of the apocalypse as it can in such a short time frame. Opening with Jim exploring a deserted London, learning about the infection through Selena, exploring places like his family home, and meeting Frank & Hannah in their tower block. The point at which the film stops being as interesting to me is when the group arrive at the military outpost established by Major Henry West (Christopher Eccleston). This part is fine in the grand scheme of things, but I feel like this would have been better left to a sequel. None of the soldiers have any character to them, and West’s motivations seem kind of vague, problems which would have been solved by simply allowing more time to be spent with them.
Something that does become clear once the group reaches West's outpost though is the notion of, as West puts it 'People killing people'. The opening of the film is a montage of human aggression and violence, something that becomes echoed in the infected throughout the rest of the film. West believes that nothing has changed, that before the infection all he ever saw was people killing people, and since the infection it has been much the same. It's a nihilistic view to hold, but one that is echoed in Jim's own character arc as he eventually gives in to the violence in order to save his friends. This dopes lead me onto something of a negative point regarding the story though and that's the overly poetic language used. It feels out of place because normal people would never speak like that, especially in times like these.
Murphy had his breakout role in this film and it’s easy to see why he’s gone on to have such great success. Even here in 28 Days Later, Murphy brings his trademark charm and wit to the performance and feels like an experienced movie star despite this being his humble beginnings to the world of the big screen. Harris, Gleeson, and Eccleston also bring great performances to the film, however the lack of much character development holds them back from being able to be particularly memorable. Burns delivers an underwhelming performance primarily because she never delivers her lines with any kind of emotion, and on top of that I’m not really sure what accent she’s supposed to have. She didn’t have a particularly long-lived acting career, and I’ve not seen her other films so I can’t say whether she genuinely was a bad actress or just had some shoddy direction from Boyle, but considering she’s only ever been in two other films (One in the year before 28 Days Later, and one sixteen years later in 2018) kind of leads me to believe she just isn’t particularly good.
What I always find so striking about 28 Days Later is how amateur it looks. Part of this could be down to the small budget, however I feel that the film often looks kind of plain. Cinematographer Anthony Dod Mantle shoots the entire film with some of the most basic shots I've ever seen in a mainstream film. I'm not really sure what the intention behind this was, but it's made even worse with the heavy film grain applied to the whole thing. The result leads to images that always feel soft in focus, and lacking inspiration. Harsh words? Perhaps, but considering how much I like 28 Days Later, the visual style of the film never fails to irritate me and often put me off wanting to revisit it.
28 Days Later was an important genre film but is quite simple in comparison to what it inspired. That doesn’t make 28 Days Later unworthy of your time, but it can sometimes feel like you’ve seen it all before, but 28 Days Later was the OG for a lot of the modern zombie entertainment trends. I may hate the way the film looks at times, but don't let that stop you from enjoying the broken world the film thrusts upon you. If you like zombie films then you’ve likely already seen 28 Days Later, but maybe it’s worth revisiting now that the film has reached its twentieth anniversary.
What I always find so striking about 28 Days Later is how amateur it looks. Part of this could be down to the small budget, however I feel that the film often looks kind of plain. Cinematographer Anthony Dod Mantle shoots the entire film with some of the most basic shots I've ever seen in a mainstream film. I'm not really sure what the intention behind this was, but it's made even worse with the heavy film grain applied to the whole thing. The result leads to images that always feel soft in focus, and lacking inspiration. Harsh words? Perhaps, but considering how much I like 28 Days Later, the visual style of the film never fails to irritate me and often put me off wanting to revisit it.
28 Days Later was an important genre film but is quite simple in comparison to what it inspired. That doesn’t make 28 Days Later unworthy of your time, but it can sometimes feel like you’ve seen it all before, but 28 Days Later was the OG for a lot of the modern zombie entertainment trends. I may hate the way the film looks at times, but don't let that stop you from enjoying the broken world the film thrusts upon you. If you like zombie films then you’ve likely already seen 28 Days Later, but maybe it’s worth revisiting now that the film has reached its twentieth anniversary.