Not your typical Zombie flick this Danny Boyle directed movie starts in the heart of London before heading to Manchester and ultimately further North from there. ‘28 Days Later’ is a modern steer on the Zombie horror type of movie. Released in 2002 this is a British movie written by Alex Garland and directed by Danny Boyle, whilst being produced by Andrew Macdonald. It was made on a budget of $8m but went onto to make $82.7m at the box office. Even the critics liked it with the usually sniffy IMDb about horror movies gave this one a 7.6 out of 10 and Rotten Tomatoes went for a smooth 87%. It stars Cillian Murphy, Naomie Harris, Christopher Eccleston, Megan Burns, and Brendan Gleeson and I remember hearing an interview where they were explaining filming in London with hundreds of people held behind a rope just off camera as they filmed disserted streets of London in the early hours of the morning. Some clever movie tricks where used there.
This story begins with a bit of a back story where we see a group of British animal rights activists breaks into a science lab to free the chimpanzees that were being held and experimented on there. What they don’t realise is that the lab was creating killer virus that causes rage a virus that makes the sufferer’s eyes turn red and makes them homicidal maniacs – with Rage. From freeing this one chimpanzee the whole of the UK falls. Jim a cycle courier wakes ‘28 Days Later’ after that moment in the St Thomas’ Hospital in London. The hospital is deserted, and he leaves confused out onto the streets of London. London is equally empty, and he is attacked but survives and runs into some other survivors who start to fill in some of the gaps for Jim. The group is attacked, and Jim is left with Selena who see a lit sign near the top of a tower block, so they travel to the flat. They meet a father and daughter who join them and travel the apocalyptic Britain searching for a safe place where they can go from scraping by to surviving. They hear a call from the army offering salvation meeting at a junction on the M62 just outside Manchester. The ‘new’ family travel that way to meet a troop of soldiers who can save them, right?
This is a great movie; it almost feels like three movies in one and the story goes through sections. Firstly, the devastation of the world (well Britain at least) where we join the story with Jim waking up into nothing. Then there is the travelling and the joining up with the soldiers battling against the wave of zombies and finally with the internal battles concluding the story. This is a fantastic movie put together in a clever way. I don’t have many Danny Boyle movies in this list, but I have to say I admire his work as he is very clever with his work. This movie just works it changed the narrative of Zombies with people that are still alive but have no control over the urge to kill but fast and able to actually run after you rather than being the lumbering dead slowly jerking towards you. Giving you plenty of time to dash away or decide on a weapon to use to kill said lumbering monster slowly gets to you. These guys run freaking fast and they can turn you in the blink of an eye, making them so much more terrifying than the old creepers. If you haven’t seen this one, give yourself a treat and get ready to move to the edge of your seat as your affection for these characters grows and your fear for them to stay alive increases. You’re going to love it.
Next up is another horror, well it starts as a horror and just slips into comedy before it just gives up on the horror and waves a white flag and just says stuff it, we’ll just make you laugh instead…
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