28 Days Later

A well-written reproduction of the subject of Romero’s mediocre Day of the Dead, spoiled by unsuitable visuals and music. I want a big-budget, celluloid remake by Guillermo del Toro with music by Marco Beltrami! (26/05/2003)

Raw British horror that replaces slow zombies with fast infected people, influencing this horror subgenre for many years to come. The casting of Cillian Murphy in the main role was an interesting move, his face has both boyish and girlish features and his transformation from “someone who’s being dragged on” into “the one that saves everybody” was also interesting. Great. (18/11/2007)

And then that the animal rights people have the welfare of the entire planet at heart... Honestly, I wasn't too keen on the initially trashy style, and for a long time I was convinced that I was watching Danny Boyle's weakest film. But the plot flip in the middle and my reminiscences on The Mist (is the biggest danger lurking outside or inside?) fixed that a bit, and Cillian Murphy is actually a pretty cool bad-ass here. I guess this is how I'd imagine a film made by some hardcore 80s horror fan who has a healthy obsession with zombie themes and no wider ambitions. I can't quite identify with Boyle's intent, so I'm left with pure average (which is pretty low for Boyle). (30/05/2018)

Though, strictly speaking, 28 Days Later should not be ranked among zombie movies, given that the origin of the apocalypse it depicts would rather place it among contagion films, it draws directly from the tradition of zombie-apocalypse movies on many levels. Furthermore, its international box-office success had a fundamental impact on the revitalisation of the zombie genre in the new millennium. The legacy of zombie movies in the Romero tradition is fully evident here, as the monsters and the apocalypse associated with them serve both as a catalyst for a drama involving a handful of survivors and as a mirror held up to contemporary society and its ills. Danny Boyle and Alex Garland focused specifically on the global phenomenon of rage, which they see – at least in England – as the result of frustration arising from unfulfilled ideals about the value and importance of the individual in a democratic society. The use of digital cameras highlights the immediate tension of the characters, while also serving as a reminder of the mass deployment of security cameras, which are intended to protect people, but only contribute to anxiety and the feeling of diminished privacy, as well as to rising fear in the population brought on by the released footage of criminal acts being committed. (16/09/2013)

Strong as a whole, but unconvincing in the development of the plot, or solid filmmaking that is hard to keep up with. Either way, Danny Boyle is a very good and smart director who, in the broader narrative context, elevates his film above the level of B-movie (whether in the naturalistic intro or in the end, where is bluntly suggested that the aggressive infection is actually part of the human DNA), but the explicit meanings at times feel so loose and dumbed-down and the character development so hasty that they hurt the film’s added value. The intentionally cheap look is fitting, what is more arguable is the adequacy of the music, and personally I was bothered by some editing montages and the dumb behaviour of the characters. An interesting take on the material that actually deserved a more thoughtful and psychological layering. 65% (27/03/2020)