28 DAYS LATER


A real balls-to-the-wall cautionary tale-cum-horror film, 28 DAYS LATER feels very potent in the current era of foot-and-mouth disease and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS). Danny Boyle, the man who brought us the impetuous TRAINSPOTTING in 1996, brilliantly depicts an England virtually bereft of humanity after a virus that has been injected into lab monkeys causes them to go (literally) ape-shit after a group of well-meaning (and uneducated) animal-rights activists set them free, oblivious to the contagion they are about to help spread. What remains are a small cluster of broken and bewildered people who, 28 days after the madness began, struggle with the hope of finding similar companions not already infected with the virus that started it all. The virus itself is the human emotion rage, and this motif calls to mind Nola Carveth and the sublimation of her repressed anguish and maternal hatred into the form of murderous children in David Cronenberg’s THE BROOD (1979).

Naomi Harris and Cillian Murphy give strong performances as two people who desperately search for food and water, wondering if the virus has spread beyond their borders. Alexander Delamere and Kim McGarrity are convincing as a father and daughter who have hope for the future because they have each other. Christopher Eccleston, the seminar leader in Cronenberg’s eXistenZ and Nicole Kidman’s husband in THE OTHERS, is effective as the military leader who’s radio broadcast of a cure for the disease leads the four protagonists to his fortress – or lair, depending on your point of view.

The amazing thing about 28 DAYS LATER is that it was shot on digital video. I have viewed the film on DVD and to my untrained eyes the movie looked as though it was shot on film. How the film will fair blown up to 35mm for the American theatrical run remains to be seen. We’ll all know come June 27th, 2003.

Definitely worth seeing theatrically with an audience.

- Jonathan Stryker



WHAT YOU SAID [VIEW]

Juan Rayo said
Ok, first of all, I liked the movie, but I think it's nothing really special, unless we consider that going into it with VERY low expectations will kinda elevate it for us. So yeah, I think it's fun, but felt I had to point out some things that people should consider about it:

1. The virus itself. It ruins the movie for me. It killed it for me right at the beginning. It is a common misconception that a really “dangerous” virus will be VERY fast and VERY brutal. Quite on the contrary, the REAL lethal ones are the virus that bide their time, act slowly, conceal their presence and thus make carriers appear unaffected until they can contaminate someone else (AIDS being the prime example of this). The way the virus spread stretched my capacity for "suspension of disbelief" to the breaking point. Plus, it's not even airborne! you have to be exposed to infected blood (or bitten) to catch it.

2. A virus THAT fast with such a clumsy delivery form would have NO chance of leaving the laboratory (and one would think they have “emergency measures” for just this kind of thing) let alone infecting the whole country. See, you can EASILY tell when someone is infected. A “rage” infected person can’t just walk to you and kiss you to spread the infection right? So I think the British armed forces, SAS and others would have an EASY time telling friend from foe and mowing down those infected. In order for a Virus to really be able to spread itself, it must be silent and damn near invisible so by the time we recognized it, it would be already too late.

3. Who attended to Ciliam Murphy while he was in a coma? I am not sure about this, but I have the suspicion that people in a coma need CONSTANT, professional care, if only cause the “feeding” tubes don’t last that long. So who kept him alive?

4. One of the very first things he does upon waking up is drink a can of soda. I am sorry, but if you have been in a comma for (one would presume) 28 days, and the very first thing you did upon waking up was drinking a soda, you would DIE because of the shock that would be to your system. That, or having to visit the bathroom every 5 minutes…

5. I agree with Mr. Davies review when he says “Funny he doesn't find any patients slaughtered in their hospital beds or bodies lying in the street. I guess either cleanup crews had done some work or there just wasn't much left (this is assuming it's not a gaping plot hole)” Only I do belive it IS a gaping plot hole. And one that ruins the experience for me. There are NO bodies in the streets, the buildings and houses are in PERFECT condition. So what, everyone just marched outside orderly to be munched upon by zombies? There should be ABSOLUTE chaos! There should be UTTER destruction!! Do you know how many fires would start in a city, any city (specially THAT BIG a city) without a fire department for nearly a month? I mean, the movie makes it clear the zombies WILL assault any house, building or fortification where humans might still live. We should be witness to way more destruction.

Who saw "The Omega Man"? (Charlton Heston) sure that movie has not aged well, but that city looked WAY more desolate, it was MUCH more real and easy to believe that something horrible had happened. It's from 1971.

6. POSIBLE SPOILER: In the final part of the movie, something happens with the characters, they change, and I don’t really like it. Naomi Harris suddenly turns into a damsel in distress, while Mr. Murphy becomes an action figure (right). Funny how starved, should-have-every-muscle-in-his-body-in miserable-shape pizza deliverer suddenly turns into a predator.

All in all, I think the movie tries too much to use Hollywood "formulas" for financial succes. Other movies by Mr. Boyle don't do this (Trainspotting) and are much better for it.

heh, sorry, woke up feeling nitpicky today...
JohnShaft said
I've only seen 28 DAYS LATER once, so my opinion isn't fully set, but I found myself with many of the same thoughts Juan.



I was going to add some further opinions on it (as I meant to at the time). Instead I think I'll give it a second viewing before I do that.
And I didn't hate the movie either, I quite enjoyed it. I just think it was really wrong of them to think people were stupid enough to not notice (or care about) some of the idiotic plot decisions they made.
And one thing I hate is being taken for an idiot. :afro:
Raven said
This film starts of reasonably well, like DOTD 04, through the first 10 or so minutes i thought "ok they might have a winner here". I liked the way the name of the virus "R.A.G.E." reflected what it did to the infected. The film really scores high points for the shots of Trafalger Square being completely deserted, but other than the was flat and really dull (apart from the church scene that was pretty eerie)
versus said
I thougt the 1st 20 minutes were good as well, but on the whole its so overrated.
Nordicdusk said
The plot takes a turn for the worst when the army got involved the movie started with so much promise.

Seen It? Tell Us What You Think




DIRECTOR

Danny Boyle

CAST

Naomi Harris
Cillian Murphy
Alexander Delamere
Kim McGarrity
Christopher Eccleston
Naomie Harris
Brendan Gleeson
Megan Burns

RELEASE DATE

2002

REVIEWER

Jonathan Stryker

REVIEW DATE

23rd June 2003 - 6:34PM

Links

28 Days Later Official Site
Rise Phoenix

Trailers

U.S. Teaser
Theatrical Trailer

Taglines

  • The Days Are Numbered.
  • Be Thankful for Everything, For Soon There Will Be Nothing...
  • Day 1: Exposure - Day 3: Infection - Day 8: Epidemic - Day 15: Evacuation - Day 20: Devastation

Trivia

  • The exteriors of the streets of London were shot in the early hours of the morning on weekdays. The crew only had a couple of minutes each day, and crew members had to politely ask clubbers not to walk onto the streets.
  • The plane used in the film flew from Blackpool to the location in the lakes. It took the crew hours to make the same journey, but it took the pilot less than six minutes and cost Ł6,000 in fuel.
  • The hospital in the film is a real day hospital and is not open at weekends. The trust managers of the hospital hire out the hospital for weekends so the filmmakers paid them directly which benefited the finances of this public hospital.
  • The tower block where Hannah and her father lived was condemned and has now been demolished.
  • The tunnel scene was filmed in a new tunnel extension which the filmmakers had special permission to use.
  • Police allowed a stretch of the M1 motorway to be closed for a few minutes at a time for the scene where you see a long desolate stretch of road.
  • Most of the film was made using digital cameras to give it the really real look (the final scenes in the cottage were shot on 35mm film). An added benefit of the digital filming was that the London shots could be set up and executed much quicker than otherwise possible which helped the filmmakers exploit very tight time windows to complete the scenes of an empty London.
  • Christoper Eccleston and the other soldiers in the film had a 3 day training programme with real soldiers to help them learn how to carry themselves believably.
  • Danny Boyle said that he used topless girls to persuade male drivers not to drive on the streets where they were shooting, to keep them free of traffic (HE Note: Now that's ingenuity I can really respect!)
  • The filmmakers had the co-operation of councils and help from the police to clear streets (and a motorway), but only for short periods which would have been useless if not for the flexibility and speed provided by digital video cameras which were used to shoot the entire film.
  • The only words spoken by an infected person in the movie are,
  • The angelic song that plays in the background particularly during the car trip is called
  • Horror novelist Stephen King bought out an entire showing of the film in New York City.


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Jonathan Stryker