28 Days Later

Is it fair to say that zombies are pretty boring at this point? Maybe its due to how overly popular they were or just due to how mainstream they’ve become in comparison to other famous movie monsters, zombies as threats within a piece of media have never really been that engaging. Even some of the most famous zombie films often have them in the background with the screen being occupied by the people instead. Despite this, zombies have still managed to stay pretty relevant in pop culture, with the most obvious reason being because of how easy they are to write for. Some movies, mostly those created by the forefather of the zombie film, George A. Romero, try to continually bend the formula enough so that it wouldn’t get old, reaching a point where zombies would start to become symbolic of real world issues, like corporate greed, materialism, representing a cleanse of humanity and so on. While these were done pretty well previously, 28 Days Later unfortunately soiled its great idea with its horrible execution. After waking up in a hospital bed, bicycle courier Jim (played by Cillian Murphy) finds himself in a deserted Britain with no clue of what conspired while he was out. It turns out that the world has fallen prey to a horrifying disease known as the ‘rage’ virus which turns people into animalistic zombie-like creatures if anyone comes in contact with infected blood. He comes across some survivors who catch him up on the situation, which includes Selena (played by Naomie Harris), Frank (played by Brendan Gleeson) and his teenage daughter, Hannah (played by Meagan Burns). Feeling like the last people on earth, the four set out to follow a radio signal that is seemingly coming from a military broadcast which appears to hold salvation for all and maybe even a cure for the virus, only to discover once they arrive that this ‘salvation’ isn’t quite what they expected.  28 Days Later did pretty well critically, was financially successful by grossing $84.6 million against its minuscule budget of $8 million, earned itself a sequel, graphic novel, and comic book series, and even earned praise for ‘reinvigorating’ the zombie formula. So, with that said, why is this movie so hard to get through?

As most zombie films go, this one (to its credit) did try and return to that classical Romero style of creating zombie movies, as it was trying to bring something different to a formula that was already really dead by this point. Coming out in 2002, the themes and concepts for the film feel more in line with a classic zombie movie; the location is different and emphasizes the desolation, the zombies are used more as a metaphor for primal human rage, the people prove to be more psychotic than the monsters themselves, and even the zombies are given more unique elements compared to other versions; these ones don’t transmit through bite but rather blood contact, they are far more physically violent in comparison, and above all else, instead of hobbling corpses, they become sprinting demons (a quality that hasn’t been utilized since The Return of the Living Dead in 1985). You need to give credit to director, Danny Boyle, and writer Alex Garland, for putting in the effort to not just recycle a used-before plot on a very repeated genre, and considering the film’s low budget, what they were able to accomplish was pretty impressive and you can tell that they have an appreciation for the classic zombie stories while not being too reliant on them when creating their own story. However, despite this valiant attempt, the movie isn’t smart enough to follow through with these good concepts. The idea of rage-induced zombies being metaphorical for humanity’s inner self is a good concept, but the idea doesn’t even get addressed or contemplated until the final thirty minutes, which is already introducing a new threat and obstacle for the leads to overcome anyone, so it almost feels like an afterthought forced in last minute to make this movie feel like its about something. The rest of the movie is just following a pretty standard narrative of people trying to reach a location while dodging threats and bonding as a group, which just isn’t that fun to watch when nothing new is really being presented. Instead of creating an interesting world where the commentary comes naturally through its character’s actions and surroundings, it creates a barren world, with bland characters that spout overly obvious words of dialogue . For what is called the movie that reinvigorated the zombie formula, it’s a pretty forgettable and dull experience overall.

The characters are also nothing special in regard to the zombie formula. For a set-up that feels tailored made to contain interesting roles, these characters are so generic and forgettable that you could list them as their archetype rather than their names; the bland male lead, the tough black chick, the hopeful father, the innocent daughter, and the obviously evil bad guy. It’s a pretty forgettable cast and one that isn’t even written to be intriguing or offer up anything different, even this late in the game. Cillian Murphy is a pretty good actor, but he is given nothing to work with in this movie; only used for walking aimlessly through desolate places, letting everybody else do the work for him, and then inexplicably be the hero by the end. Gleeson and Burns don’t feel like anything more than sympathetic pawns that only exist to be killed later down the line, and the villains are annoyingly simplistic and aren’t given the proper amount of complexity or depth to make their purpose feel warranted in a story that didn’t include them for a majority of its length. Having the military be the main threats in this story might be a little on the nose, but having them transform into psychopaths not from the virus, but from just being walled away in isolation is a good idea, but it skips the progress and goes straight to the crazy, and even getting a poplar British actor like Christopher Eccelston as the main general doesn’t erase how one-note he’s written as in this movie. Naomie Harris is the only real one of substance in the movie. Despite still playing a pretty bland role, she acts it pretty well and it becomes really weird when she becomes a damsel by the end since she was the only one doing competent stuff throughout the whole movie. Even her relationship with the kid is the only one of value in this movie, but its not given time to fully develop because its shared with boring characters.

One of the repeated elements that is shown or known about from this movie is the abandoned city of Britain and the atmosphere that came with this. The film crew utilized this concept and filmed in closed-off sections of London to really capture this sense of isolation and highlight the lack of modern society. Despite not being too unique now, back then it was a pretty big deal and it gives the movie a decently effective starting point. However, this doesn’t last too long when the movie ruins a lot of these moments with its camerawork. The movie’s cinematography by Anthony Dod Mantle and editing by Chris Gill is horrendous, with this element being the one to drag it down the most, despite the other obvious flaws. The whole movie has this muggy yellow and green filter over it that sometimes works in the claustrophobic moments (mainly the opening and ending), but other than that, its bland and hideous to look at, some of the shots showing off London and the mansion during the climax are effective and so off some striking usage of color to extenuate a point (the bright red lighting does make things look almost demonic in nature in a good way), but overall the camera tricks are intrusive and are often needlessly done, with the movie involving panning shots that provide nothing but blank space, and editing that is so rapid and horribly strewn together that you’re barely able to comprehend what even just happened. The concept of having the zombie action be filmed with rapid shaky close-up shots is a decent idea if executed well, but this is done in such a poor way that you get taken out of the moment every single time. The music is something that has also become infamous with this movie, with composer, John Murphy providing a unique audio element to a zombie story that is a nice mix of panic and rush through a pretty cool guitar riff. It feels like a piece that wouldn’t normally work in a horror movie as its very high-octane and adrenaline-pumping, but it carries enough feelings of dread and fear through its dreary instrumentation and even usage of hollow empty space that it actually works pretty good.

28 Days Later worked so hard on trying to redefine the zombie formula that not only did it fail to properly construct these new ideas into something flowing and interesting, but it also stuffed it with a bunch of material that is either annoying, forgettable or incredibly unpleasant. In a genre that often gets too comfortable in a generic position, this movie deserves credit for trying to do something different and attempting to recapture that classic Romero feel that made zombie movies so iconic in the first place. Unfortunately, it just didn’t pay off the way that they would have hoped for and in a way that would make audiences want to continue on with this franchise. However, it seems to have been successful enough to have its own comic ad further expansions within this universe, so it all depends on what the audience is looking for. Even if the story wastes its potential, its characters are bland and poorly used, and the visuals and cinematography are awful, maybe this zombie movie will offer you something that you can go mad over.