When it came out in 2002, 28 Days Later was a horror movie like no other. It revolutionized the zombie genre by having the zombies (or in this movie’s case, ‘The Infected’) run rather than shamble. However, it still maintains the same kind of dystopic perspective as George Romero’s 1968 horror masterpiece Night of the Living Dead. This wasn’t the first time I have watched either. In full honesty, it may have been my fifth viewing of the movie. But, it had been a while since my last re-watch of the movie. This time, I was able to pick up on new aspects of the film while still enjoying what I remembered about it. I recommend the movie for a few reasons, but what particularly stuck out in this viewing of it, was the optimism of Cillian Murphy’s character while in the bleak backdrop of England. There is also an incredible family dynamic that plays out in the film. As aforementioned, the movie was directed by Danny Boyle and written by Alex Garland. In 2000, Boyle made a film called The Beach (a movie I also highly recommend), which was an adaptation of Garland’s novel of the same name. After 28 Days Later, Garland directed great movies like Ex Machina and Annihilation, not to mention his new TV series called Devs. Danny Boyle, of course, directed some of my favourite films, such as as Shallow Grave and Trainspotting. Cast in the film are Cillian Murphy, Naomie Harris, Christopher Eccleston and Brendan Gleeson. 28 Days Later begins with an eco-terrorist group unknowingly unleashing a virus called RAGE on the world. Let that sink in for a moment. Environmentalists were the ones that unleashed a zombie-like virus on the world. When the film begins, we are introduced to our lead, Jim, a bicycle courier played by Cillian Murphy, who had previously been in a coma. From there, Jim soon discovers the city of London is empty. I’m not exactly sure how the director managed to make the busy city of London look so bleak and uninhabited, but it works to increase the horror elements of the film. From there, Jim, acting as the audience’s surrogate in the film, is taught the rules of the infected by characters played by Naomie Harris (Selena) and Noah Huntley (Mark): don’t get bit and don’t get the blood of the infected in you. The film is filled with tight moments and jump scares, but the real horror is the humans in the third act, a military group led by Christopher Eccleston’s character, Major Henry West, who wants to enslave the female characters for sexual slavery. I won’t spoil it for you, but it gets exciting (and grim) seeing Jim face off against Major West. Something I discovered in this viewing of the film is that, outside of those scenes in the third act with Eccleston’s character, he remains incredibly positive. He is such a positive influence that he ‘infects’ Selena and Hannah (Megan Burns) with positivity. (see what I did there?). Every time either of them, or Hannah’s father (played with gusto by Brendan Gleeson) is tormented by the darkness of the new world, Jim seems to bring them back to the light with a single conversation. In the moment where Jim’s positive attitude finally falters, he sees a plane in the sky. That single moment fuels him to do what is necessary to save his new friends from the dehumanizing military force led by Eccleston’s Henry. Another discovery in this viewing was that Jim and his friends weren’t just simply friends. They were a family. There is even a moment that Jim calls Gleeson’s character Frank, Dad. This is something I had never picked up on in any previous viewing of this movie. In a world torn apart by monsters, both Infected and human, Jim and his ragtag group of friends created a family unit to survive the horror. Granted, some were killed by those monsters (including Gleeson’s Frank, who, in a brilliant scene, gets infected by the virus through blood in the eye and then is promptly riddled with bullets of the military force led by Major Henry). I won’t spoil the movie’s ending, nor the multiple endings the director thought of using, but it underscores the strength of the family unit was by the end of it. The movie’s lasting contributions to zombie media is no joke. Soon after this movie was distributed, other zombie movies and tv shows followed in rapid succession. The movie is a great one that maintains its pace from beginning to end while being led by Cillian Murphy and the family unit played by Harris, Burns, and Gleeson. If you haven’t seen 28 Days Later, I definitely recommend watching it. And, if you have seen it before, maybe try watching it again. Maybe, like me, you’ll find previously unseen different aspects that you like about it!
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