28 Days Later is notable for pushing back the boundaries of the stereotypes that stigmatize zombie films.The film is directed Danny Boyle, by the critically acclaimed Englishman behind Trainspotting and this years hit, Slumdog Millionaire. I actually haven't seen Trainspotting but I've heard some good things and it is on my to-see list. Slumdog I have seen and did enjoy a great deal, even though it was a bit syrupy and sappy and over-the-top at times. It was still one of the best movies that came out last year.
As the movie begins, the protagonist, a young bicycle courier named Jim (Cillian Murphy), awakens from a coma to discover that over the course of the past 28 days a pandemic "rage" virus has swept across the land, infecting all but a few survivors. Jim meets a handful of other survivors and navigates the post-apocalyptic London and English countryside seeking refuge.
While one could argue that 28 Days Later is technically not a zombie movie, since the so-called "infected" are not at all undead, merely enraged and rabidly cannibalistic, in my opinion it still fits the bill. The difference though, does make the movie much more of intensely frightening experience than the traditional zombie movie. Whereas in a traditional zombie movie, the zombies are reanimated corpses, slow-moving and dimwitted, and only killed by destroying the brain, in 28 Days Later the infected can be killed just like normal people, but are much faster and stronger because they have constant rage and adrenaline.
The movie is not so much about the threat of the infected though, as it is about the survivors and their interactions- how they work together to survive, and the interpersonal relationships that form between them in light of the extreme circumstances. Under the stress of extremely horrible times, people usually reveal what they are made up of at their core. Some are survivors, some are heroes, some are evil.
A sequel came out in 2007 called 28 Weeks Later. I saw it. It was an okay movie I suppose entertaining enough, but it completely lacked the originality and thematic vision of the first in the series. Not to mention the acting wasn't as good. It was a fun movie to watch, but just not anywhere near the same calibre of film as the original.
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