DVD Review: 28 Days Later
28 Days Later (2002)
Studio: 20th Century Fox
DVD Release Date: October 21, 2003
Directed By: Danny Boyle
Cast: Cillian Murphy, Naomie Harris, Brendan Gleeson, Megan Burns, Christopher Eccleston
Brutal As Hell Rating: 3 ½ out of 5 stars
Review By: Annie Riordan
A trio of well-meaning animal rights activists break into an experimental lab somewhere in Britain and are caught by a young doctor who warns them not to touch the animals. They are, he says, infected with “rage.” Refusing to listen, the activists release the primates, who promptly attack and infect their liberators, transforming them into hostile, blood-vomiting, red-eyed killers.
28 days later, young car accident victim Jim awakens from a coma to find the hospital he’s been sleeping in is now deserted. As he wanders about, seeking assistance, he soon discovers a decimated London, gutted and abandoned, but not entirely empty. Two survivors, Mark and Selena, rescue him from a horde of infected and Jim learns the horrible truth: England has fallen and everyone he ever knew and cared about is dead. When Mark too dies, Jim and Selena are left to fend for themselves and soon join forces with ex-cab driver Frank and his young daughter Hannah. Frank has picked up a weak radio broadcast from a military base in Manchester, so the foursome pack up and head out of the city, hoping to find food, shelter and maybe even a cure. But what they find instead is a ragtag group of soldiers who present an even greater threat than the infected.
Is it a zombie film, is it not a zombie film, who cares? 28 Days Later is a kick ass horror movie which took America by storm back in the early 2000s and for some very good reasons. Playing on our fears of disease, apocalypse and the collapse of society as we know it, 28 Days Later works on every level. It’s cerebral, emotional, bloody as hell and downright scary. Shot on gritty DV, 28 Days Later is, at times, like watching a horrific documentary. I personally sat white-knuckled through 75% of this flick the first time I saw it. From the jaw-dropping opening scenes of a deserted London to the climactic, stomach-plunging revelation of the corrupt military fortress, 28 Days Later is pure horror, stuffed to bursting with dread.
The DVD offers an audio commentary by Boyle and writer Alex Garland, deleted scenes and a making-of featurette, as well as THREE alternate endings! Woo, exciting! None of them are as satisfactory as the ending they ended up using, but they’re pretty interesting…especially the one presented in storyboard format which takes the film into an entirely different direction.
Already 28 Days Later has become a seminal, must-see modern day classic, a status it has deservedly earned. No truly devoted fan of the genre can go without seeing this flick.
