28 Days Later (2003)
Joe Caviston
Issue date: 10/30/03 Section: Arts & Entertainment
Starring Cillian Murphy, Naomie Harris, Brendan Gleeson, Megan Burns & Christopher Eccleston
Written by Alex Garland, Directed by Danny Boyle
When I first saw this film in theaters I was with a few friends, and many of them were disappointed because there was not as much action as they were expecting. They went in expecting a film not too different from last year's Resident Evil, and so I feel I should warn you if this is what you are hoping for, then 28 Days Later is not for you.
As for me...well, I hated Resident Evil, and I could not have agreed less with my friends.
I am glad that Danny Boyle, the director behind Trainspotting and the excellent but little-seen Shallow Grave, was actually going for a zombie movie with some substance to it. This is not just a "let's kill zombies!" movie; it is a surprisingly intelligent film with well developed characters and a good screenplay to go along with its solid scares, and it is one of the better films of the year.
Twenty-eight days after animal activists release some imprisoned, virus-carrying apes from a British research facility, Jim (Cillian Murphy) wakes up from a coma in a hospital and is surprised to find London seemingly deserted. He is even more surprised when he eventually does find people, but those people are insane, convulsing ghouls vomiting blood and gorging on any uninfected humans they can find.
Jim is rescued from some of these zombies by Selena (Naomie Harris), a tough-as nails survivalist who explains that this is the result of a virus that has already wiped out all of England. The virus is transmitted through blood, and if even a drop of infected blood or saliva enters the bloodstream, you become one of them.
When they meet the very friendly Frank (Brendan Gleeson) and his daughter Hannah (Megan Burns) and discover an automated radio broadcast from soldiers saying that they have "the answer to infection," the four of them set off to try to find the soldiers.
Written by Alex Garland, Directed by Danny Boyle
When I first saw this film in theaters I was with a few friends, and many of them were disappointed because there was not as much action as they were expecting. They went in expecting a film not too different from last year's Resident Evil, and so I feel I should warn you if this is what you are hoping for, then 28 Days Later is not for you.
As for me...well, I hated Resident Evil, and I could not have agreed less with my friends.
I am glad that Danny Boyle, the director behind Trainspotting and the excellent but little-seen Shallow Grave, was actually going for a zombie movie with some substance to it. This is not just a "let's kill zombies!" movie; it is a surprisingly intelligent film with well developed characters and a good screenplay to go along with its solid scares, and it is one of the better films of the year.
Twenty-eight days after animal activists release some imprisoned, virus-carrying apes from a British research facility, Jim (Cillian Murphy) wakes up from a coma in a hospital and is surprised to find London seemingly deserted. He is even more surprised when he eventually does find people, but those people are insane, convulsing ghouls vomiting blood and gorging on any uninfected humans they can find.
Jim is rescued from some of these zombies by Selena (Naomie Harris), a tough-as nails survivalist who explains that this is the result of a virus that has already wiped out all of England. The virus is transmitted through blood, and if even a drop of infected blood or saliva enters the bloodstream, you become one of them.
When they meet the very friendly Frank (Brendan Gleeson) and his daughter Hannah (Megan Burns) and discover an automated radio broadcast from soldiers saying that they have "the answer to infection," the four of them set off to try to find the soldiers.