28 Days Later

28 Days Later is a new spin on a very old genre-zombie films.

In this film, Danny Boyle shows us the opening scene of a band of young animal activists breaking into a primate reaserch facility.

They quickly see awful experiments taking place-primates are forced to watch gruesome scenes of human homicide, theft, murder etc.

A scientist spies them and runs for the alarm only to be accosted by a masked activist.

The scientist implores the idealistic young people not to release the primates as they are infected with "rage".

The activists mock him and release the animals. The animals shred the activists in a bloody fit.

Cut to Jim. A naked young bike courier waking up in an abandoned operating room.

Jim, finds the key on the floor(someone had slid it under the door after it had been locked from the other side), dresses and sees what can only be described as a totally abandoned hospital.

He wanders the streets, finds his way into a church and sees a sea of dead bodies as he overlooks them from the choir balcony.

"hello" he says, suddenly a priest, bloody and twitchy, grunts and growls his way up to Jim. Jim realizes that the priest is not friendly and hits him, then runs.He soon finds that a mysterious disease called "rage" which infects the blood within seconds of exposure, turns humans into some kind of ravenous, murderous, monster.

The rest of the movie is dark and scary as Jim, his new friend Celine and a father/daughter make their way out of the city , narrowly avoiding the flood of infected. Trying to locate a mysterious repeating radio message offering haven to anyone in earshot, they drive for miles, stopping only to sleep in wide open fields for a night.

This haven is anything but. A contingent of British special forces(all men) have fortified a regal british estate house far from the main road and have defended the perimeter with heavy arms.

Power, and hot water are available.

Soon, the commander tels Jim that the only way to keep his men from killing themselves in this world bereft of life, was to promise them women.

Jim disagrees and is sentenced to death , his two female companions are taken away and the men plan to have their way with them.

I wont spoil the rest of it for you.....watch it, its' much better than any other zombie movie

With 28 Days Later, Danny Boyle turned the great existential novel of a famous writer into a simple zombie movie, which is a real pity.

There was a chance to make a great movie of capturing the real human behaviors when the world falls apart and a new one has to be built.

The director only replaced the threat of the carnivorous plants for the zombies that infect every single living citizen by biting with a virus changing the nature of the man making them to be totally brainwashed, unreasonable killing machines. But he forgot to follow the idea of pointing to human behavior and acting in need.

The movie lacks in capturing the impressive atmosphere of the collapsing cities and civilization falling to its knees, leaving behind the real characters of survivors realizing they're the ones who has to start over from a scratch to build a new world from nothing.

If I could make a good review, it would be the book "The Day of the Triffids" which you should read instead, it's much better than this piece of film work, that tries to be good, but not enough.

Danny Boyle is in my opinion just a poor thief that lost the idea which was in the original John Wyndham's concept.

28 Days Later is another grim vision of the future shown through film. I'm glad to say that it's a British movie, and it all works well bringing interesting ideas to the table. A modern classic, definitely recommended.

28 Days Later - After animal rights protesters break into an animal testing plant, they release the most deadly virus of all time. Rage, a disease carried by apes. A shocking opening then cuts 28 days later when a man (Cillian Murphy) wakes up from a coma to find that London is deserted. He is taken in by a man and a women who tell him about the powerful virus that swept England. The film then cascades into a rollercoster ride of disturbing scenes of a deserted London to shocking deaths of infected people. This truly was the most terryfying film I have ever seen. Even the acting's good, and this is a horror film.

Synopsis:

"A powerful virus is unleashed. Transmitted in a drop of blood and devastating within seconds, the virus locks those infected into a permanent state of murderous rage. Within 28 days the country is overwhelmed and a handful of survivors begin their attempts to salvage a future, little realising that the deadly virus is not the only thing that threatens them".

Danny Boyle (Trainspotting & The Beach) directs this blood soaked virus zombie horror which was released back in 2002. He has opted for filming the entire feature on digital video to give a more real-to-life, CCTV kind of look. The atmosphere throughout the film is one of desperation, which is brought forward perfectly by the high level of acting and a killer script. The film holds you on the edge of your seat from the minute it starts, with a non-stop roller-coaster of a ride from suspense to heart racing moments of action. It is packed with awesome special effects and make-up, delivering a wholly believable film that drags you right into the storyline.

The film completes itself in a believable and well written way, that leaves you impressed and maybe a little shaken.

The DVD release is packed with special features including:

1. Audio commentary with Danny Boyle and Alex Garland

2. Deleted Scenes x 8 with optional commentary

3. Radical story board alternative ending

4. Pure Rage: Making of 28 Days Later

5. Jacknife Lee music video

6. Still and Polaroid Gallery with commentary

7. Animated story boards

8. Trailers

The deleted scenes are awesome and it is a real shame that they can't be inserted back into the film if you wish. The whole DVD package is fantastic. It is available on Region 2 PAL and runs for a total of 108mins (approx).

The film 28 Days Later has a lot of things that most british horrors don't have, and that is the ability to make you jump and get on the edge of your seat. On dvd you get to see alternate endings that are very good and a directors commentary.

This movie, in my opinion, is a typical zombie movie. The only difference is this one takes place in both day/night and takes multiple days and the average flick of this genre takes place usually in one night.

As for the acting it starts off a bit slow but after about 10-15 when the story is set up and the virus situation is explaned, dialogue becomes dramatically better.

The action sequences are spaced out evenly along side the "stress-relief" scenes as not to be high tension all along the way. Every time one of these zombie attack scenes comes up I(a veteran horror movie fan) cringed a bit at some of the primalistic actions both the people and the zombie take on. This part of the movie is guaranteed to keep you enticed if you came to theatres based on the trailers. Also the part in every action/horror movie where the main character Jim gets fed up and opens up a can of you know what, the excitement level rockets through the roof.

The most important part of the movie is the ending. It was handled in a "believable"( a word I use loosely in this genre) manner and you can understand how they are and what they plan to do when the movie cuts off.

In the overall quality of this movie I am satisfied and my high hopes were not crushed at all but were risen even higher. This is a must see movie and possibley even a must by if/when it goes to DVD

I have watched this film many times and I love it. It had me stuck to my seat for the entire movie. Horror movies are my favorite and I have found this one to be the best I have seen. Loved Luke in the hat and army gear(Very Sexy). "If you have not seen this film yet then what are you waiting for get down to your nearest video store and watch it now"!!!

Superb film capturing the terror and the lonliness of a post apocalyptic world. The deserted London was particularly haunting.

Before i rented 28 Days Later i was told nothing except that it was ment to be quite good.

as i sat down to watch the film i asked my sister what it was about and she said that it was some thing about the end of the world.

this film is about an infection that got out when some poeple tryed to rescue apes from a lab, the apes where carrying the virus and it all gets out of hand and some one ends up getting bitten.

then you see a very naked, scfuffy looking man in hospital which is deserted, you then see him walking around the hospital looking for people and so on. once he finds some poeple,who i must say are quite unrelistic charactors they go on a little crusade to try and find other non infected people.

the film goes on and with some brutual killings and some gory make up it is a good watch, for the less intelligent people i would say maybe you wouldnt get it although this film is easy to follow and rather unpredicable at times.there is only one warning- people who faint and vomit at the site of blood flicking upon the wall may need a pillow to hide behind at times.