Rating: 8/10
Review date: September 28, 2003
Jim is a bicycle courier in London who woke up in a hospital one day to find the whole city deserted. It turns out that a deadly virus which turns humans into murderous zombies was accidentally released twenty-eight days ago. After meeting three other survivors, Jim and his companion traveled to the north of Manchester where salvation supposedly awaits�
28 Days Later is a solid attempt by director Danny Boyle to convey various themes, the most notably being survival. The movie managed to strike the right chord with a great setup that leaves plenty of room to develop the various characters in how they choose to handle the situation.
The atmosphere is done nicely and the element of suspense is really there because the infected humans can attack anytime. In spite of this, there is very little �boo� moments present considering it�s supposed to be a horror movie although there are plenty of gore and disgusting scenes to satisfy.
The suspense is further enhanced by the camera work which can be quite shaky at times. Most of the actions scenes are done in this manner which suits me just fine actually, contrary to some other people who dislike it.
The soundtrack sets up the ambience pretty well (I like it very much) and a great amount of silence is also used.
The characters are portrayed very well by their respective actors/actresses. Cillian Murphy as Jim shows his ability to react to his environment, from being a confused person until becoming adept on the art of survival.
Naomie Harris as Selena is the tough chick who will do anything to survive albeit being successful in conveying a sense of vulnerability and some emotions. The rest of the cast gets their job done although they are not necessarily worth mentioning here.
Despite of how it is advertised, 28 Days Later is not a pure horror movie as what you might expect from the trailer. It is a horror movie which focuses more on the psychological aspect, shedding light on how different individuals would react should such situation really occur.
The script is the one which makes this possible and I am grateful for the amount of character development, usually non-existent in this type of movie. I do feel that this movie lacks enough bite for a horror movie and I was expecting more gore and more intense action, perhaps more �boo� moments as well.
Regardless of that, this movie is still highly recommended for those who are looking for something refreshing in the horror genre. By that I mean the typical and slice and dice flick with a whole bunch of teenagers running around, waiting for their turn to be wasted.
Memorable quote: �They�re all dead and you�re gonna be next.�
-Megan Burns as Hannah-
(c) Martin Taidy 2003