28 Days Later... (2002)

Every so often there comes a genre movie that so perfectly plugs into the prevailing zeitgeist that it seems almost calculated. 28 Days Later..., though shot before the 11 September 2001 attacks, came along at just the right moment - its apocalyptic vision of a depopulated London, its inhabitants driven insane by a virulent plague unleashed by misguided militants, arrived in UK cinemas just as the British press were full of horror stories suggesting that al-Qaeda terrorists were lurking in every Underground station armed with all manner of hideous biological weapons.

Alex Garland's script has been criticised in some quarters for quoting so relentlessly from the films that he clearly loved so much, though in fact as a pastiche of the post-apocalyptic genre it works tremendously well. Garland ransacks The Day of the Triffids (1962 and 1981), Dawn of the Dead (1978), Day of the Dead (1985) and The Omega Man (1971) among others for images and ideas, reworking them into something that manages to transcend its apparent limitations to bring a freshness to the sub-genre that was long overdue. The post-apocalypse genre had been moribund for some while before Garland and director Danny Boyle gave it a shot in the arm.

The film begins with a tour de force first reel. Jim's solitary stroll through the wreckage of an eerily abandoned London, scored to Godspeed You Black Emperor's outstanding East Hastings, is genuinely creepy and the every real sense of isolation and devastation sets the tone perfectly. By the time Jim is rescued from the "infected" and the gas station explodes, there can surely be no-one in the audience left unhooked and unmoved. It's a stunning opening, the best in any genre movie for quite a while.

One of the many beauties of Garland's script is that it constantly twists and turns - just when you think you've got the film neatly pigeon-holed, it mutates into something else. Thus the science fiction trappings of the opening give way to a series of convincing characters studies that both introduce the main characters and suggest that we might be heading into the "cosy catastrophe" territory mapped by British post-apocalypse authors like John Wyndham and John Christopher, before suddenly turning into Apocalypse Now (1979) for the climax.

Boyle handles the many complexities of Garland's script with his usual aplomb. His decision to shoot on digital video gives the film an immediacy that greatly benefits the character-driven nature of the script. It looks almost documentary like in the opening sequences, though the transfer to film give the movie a slightly murky look in cinemas that irritated some. The DVD release is a revelation, however, as the clarity of Boyle's images is evident throughout.

Boyle shows that he's a genre-savvy as Garland, playing both against our expectations (the infected don't behave at all like the Romero zombies we're set up to expect, moving at lightning speed with ferocious unpredictability) while happily using every horror genre cliché in the book. There are plenty of genuine shocks along the way as crazed infected burst through windows, run through the streets aflame and pop up when you least expect them. But he also proves himself a master of suspense - his debut feature, Shallow Grave (1994), had been a taut psychological chiller with plenty of Hitchcockian tension, but even that didn't hint at the mastery of suspense on show here. The scene in the tunnel in particular, with the survivors surrounded by fleeing rats and screaming infected is real edge-of-the-seat stuff.

One of the key reasons for the film's success is that Garland and Boyle are as much concerned with their characters as they are with their situations. All of the main survivors are well-drawn, sympathetic characters and the loss of one of them halfway through is a true shock and just one of the emotional wrenches the audience goes through during the course of the film. Jim's character arc, from confused, naive and frankly rather hopeless survivor to ruthlessly efficient leader and killing machine is handled well and the potentials pitfalls are largely avoided. His progress through a series of father figures that ultimately let him down helps to shape the hard-nosed pragmatist he becomes by the end of the film informs much of the film and underpins Jim's relationships with just about every other character in the film.

Boyle is aided immeasurably by a first rate cast: Cillian Murphy is excellent as Jim, managing a difficult transition from shell-shocked survivor to an enraged fighter so brutal that even those closest to him mistake him for one of the infected without ever losing audience sympathy. He's given a good run for his money from Naomie Harris (from the second incarnation of TV's The Tomorrow People (1992 - 1995)) as fellow survivor Selena. It's clear early on that she's the real survivor, the true leader of the rag-tag band, so it's slightly disappointing to find Garland succumbing to genre stereotypes in the final act and having her imprisoned and awaiting rescue from Jim. Her relationship with Jim is well handled though as Garland and Boyle avoid the obvious romance in favour of something more believable and there's a definite chemistry between Murphy and Harris.

Irish actor Brendan Gleeson (Braveheart (1995), Lake Placid (1999), AI (2001)) virtually steals the show as homely London taxi driver Frank, a genial family man whose relationship with his daughter Hannah (a good turn by Megan Burns) provides an add core of normality to the proceedings - his attempts to "normalise" the catastrophe with a house decorated in Christmas tree lights is strangely touching. Christopher Eccleston (Cracker (1993 - 1995), Shallow Grave (1994), The Others (2001), Doctor Who (2005)) is his usual wonderful self as the mad Major West whose veneer of charm masks a terrifying ambition to repopulate the world. He underscores the chief subtext of the film, the one that underpins most 'zombie' movies (yes, they're "infected" not "zombies" but the intent is the same): that in the wake of the apocalypse we've got a lot more to fear from the normal than the abnormal. The very predictability of the blood-crazed infected makes them relatively easy to avoid and fight - Selena seems to have worked that out early on. But the capriciousness of a human mind gripped by madness is something that's almost impossible to combat with anything other than other forms of madness.

Boyle has always had a smart ear for the right tune to underscore the action - the soundtrack to Trainspotting (1996) proved to be one of the essential album purchases of the year - and in 28 Days Later... his taste is as impeccable as ever. As well as the aforementioned Godspeed You Black Emperor (a rare soundtrack appearance from the notoriously anti-commercial Canadians), excellent use is made of Brian Eno's haunting and deeply moving An Ending (Ascent) (from the Apollo Soundtracks album), which also scored the excellent trailer.

What few faults there are in Garland's script (the virus' 20 second incubation period makes no sense - the virus would be too devastating for its own good and would destroy its host population too quickly) or Boyle's direction (the climactic running battle is mostly wonderful but occasionally confusing) can be overlooked in favour of the fabulous atmosphere, wonderful characters and plethora of old ideas given fresh new spins.

Arriving at a time when weapons of mass destruction were the latest global fear, road-, air- and pedestrian-rage were the buzzwords du jour and terrorists were said to be lurking around every corner, 28 days Later... was very much a film of the moment. But it has enough fine qualities to ensure its longevity. It arrived at the forefront of a revival in the fortunes of the horror film, slowly emerging from the post-Scream (1996) quagmire into which it had fallen and set a standard that many subsequent genre films have found difficult to match.
KEVIN LYONS

Last Updated: 15 October, 2008