|
home > films
>
 28
DAYS LATER... (2002)
Dir. Danny Boyle
Starring:
Cillian Murphy .... Jim
Naomie Harris .... Selena
Megan Burns .... Hannah
Brendan Gleeson .... Frank
Noah Huntley .... Mark
Christopher Eccleston .... Major Henry West
It seems that I have seen too many zombie movies and unfortunately the
characters in Danny Boyle's new movie 28 Days Later... would appear
to have seen none....
Set in present day Britain, a group of animal activists break into a
laboratory and despite warnings from a frantic scientist release a monkey
infected with the highly contagious virus "Rage". As may be guessed from
the infection's name, once in a host's system the virus causes the victim
to become a violent adrenaline-charged killing machine, prone to vomiting
blood over the uninfected to pass on the germ and thus perpetuate themselves.
 Consequently,
the freed monkey takes a bite out of one of our animal loving chumps and
28 days later the majority of the county's population are either dead
or infected. Jim, the movie's main character, wakes up in hospital from
a coma (having been hit by a truck four weeks previously) and finds himself
alone in London city, with no one for company and a few newspaper headlines
screaming out "EVACUATION!"
But of course, Jim is not alone for long...
Boyle is apparently not pleased that his movie is being labeled horror
and he has also tried to shy away from the "zombie" tag. Indeed, there
are no undead in this movie, no flesh-munching cadavers or decomposing
brain-hungry corpses. The "infected" in this movie are athletic and aggressive,
in very much of a style similar to the berserker warriors of old rather
than the slow shuffling zombie menace that fans of horror movies are maybe
more familiar with. The debt to the zombie genre, specifically Romero's
...of the Dead trilogy is nonetheless apparent. This does make
Boyle's protests seem a little bizarre, especially when there are at least
five scenes/major ideas in the movie that are blatant homage to scenarios
from Romero's classics.
 There
are other influences in here too, however, although influence is perhaps
not strong enough a term to describe the out and out theft of other ideas.
Day of the Trifids and I am Legend/Omega Man are
not so much borrowed from, but unashamedly robbed at knifepoint...all
of which could be forgiven if 28 Days Later... was able to stand
up in its own right...
Alas, not. The characterisation is clichéd to the point of comic
book and the plot twists are often seen coming a long time in advance.
As I mention, this is possibly due to the fact that I am familiar with
zombie/apocalyptic cinema and a film so immersed in this genre's lore
is going to be strongly derivative of those that came before it. Yet a
great deal of time is spent wondering just how the director could feel
comfortable allowing his characters to be so blatantly stupid.
 On
the positive side, the first parts of the film will hit a nerve for those
familiar with London. Seeing the city so deserted, complete with red double-decker
bus upturned and Center-Point empty is genuinely eerie.
It is curious just how empty the film is though. Considering we are supposed
to believe that most of the population of the UK has been infected with
"Rage", there are surprisingly few "infected" to be seen and nor are there
a great deal of corpses to account for the dead. This and the fact that
it has been shot on Digital Video lend a belief that this film has been
produced on a small budget. This is hardly an excuse though, as Sam Raimi's
Evil Dead was shot for a stupidly small amount of money and is
widely regarded as a masterpiece of cinematic horror.
It has been said that it is impossible to make a contemporary Zombie
movie. Much has been made of the fact that Romero's work was produced
at a time of fear of nuclear war, playing on the factor of the unknown
and presenting the viewer with hopeless visions of the end of the world.
This is as maybe, but there has been a recent resurgence in the Zombie
genre inside of Eastern Cinema - with the films Versus, Wild
Zero and Bio Zombie all managing to respectfully acknowledge
their influences and then run with them into dazzling new areas. In light
of these productions, 28 Days Later... is a failure and I am stunned
that it has been given a general release in the UK when the previously
mentioned oriental epics remain largely unknown on these shores.
MARC BLACKIE - 6 November 2002
|
