When Brits Attack!
Written: Aug 03 '03
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Product Rating:
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Pros: An interesting twist on the zombie genre
Cons: Not all that scary, sluggish pacing near the end
The Bottom Line: More like a drama with some horror elements - definitely an acquired taste.
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| tanta07's Full Review: 28 Days Later |
28 Days Later really had the makings to be a great modern day horror film. It's central plot was strong, and played upon someone of the most deep-seeded neuroses that plague our 21st century society. It strove to show us the alienation and hopelessness associated with a worldwide plague, something that haunts us on a daily basis in the form of SARS, AIDS, Ebola, etc. What if you were to wake one morning and find that everyone you knew and loved was dead, and you had to make a new beginning for yourself with no help? Oh yeah, and there's also bloodthirsty zombies around every corner who want to bash your head in. This is the main framework of 28 Days Later, and I must say that it is a brilliant kernel of an idea for a horror film. However, I just never felt that the movie totally capitalized on the idea it was selling. The horrors are few and far between, and plot creeps along at a snail's pace, and it's heavily weighted down by the burden of a bloated and irrelevant third act. There were so many promising directions the film could have spun itself off into, but I was left feeling like most of its potential was wasted. That being said, however, it was still a pretty decent horror flick, and a lot better than most of the crap that is fed to us these days in the horror genre. Grand in vision, but coming up short in its delivery, 28 Days Later shows us that horror is not dead, but it does need a good kick in the butt on occasion.
Our film opens with a shot of a research facility in England that is filled with caged monkeys. They are being shown videos of humans at their worst, rioting, murdering, committing crime. We don't know it yet, but these monkeys have also been purposely infected with something only known as "rage." It is carried through the blood and saliva, and turns the infected into a mindless rage machine that will destroy everything in its path. What would a movie be without idiot youngsters to come bumbling along and get the ball rolling? Well, this horror film staple is supplied in the form of well-meaning PETA activists who barge into the lab and attempt to release the monkeys. A hapless scientist tries to warn them about what they're about to do, but we wouldn't have a film if young idealists actually listened to reason. They release the monkeys, the monkeys open up a can of whoop a** all over the place, and the "rage" infection spreads like Hepatitis at a String Cheese Incident concert. We are informed that the virus takes over the infected person within 10 or 20 seconds, so before we know it, there's a full-fledged epidemic on our hands.
Cut to an ominous black screen that only says, "28 days later." Jim (Cilian Murphy) awakes from a coma to find himself lying in a hospital bed, totally alone. He stumbles through the abandoned hospital, only to stop long enough to slurp down a few Pepsis that are lying haphazardly on the floor (I suppose having nothing to drink for 28 days would leave you with a powerful dry). In what is by far the most powerful scene in the film, Jim wanders through London to find it totally abandoned. Amongst the debris blowing around in the streets, he glances at newspaper headlines that mention a evacuation (I guess coma patients weren't included in the escape plans), and countless flyers for missing people. He wanders into a church to find that it is literally piled high with dead bodies. These scenes have even more impact because the only noise heard is Jim's pleading cries of "hello," over and over. He makes the mistake of shouting this into the church, and he notices that not every body in there is actually dead. He is confronted by a group of raging zombies (the "infected"), and he gets the distinct impression that they don't exactly have the best intentions in mind. He flees from the growing horde of infected, only to be saved by two masked allies. They too, find themselves unaffected by the virus, and are just fighting to say alive. Serena (Naomie Harris) and Mark have figured out some things about the infected; they don't come out much in the day time, they can be killed by conventional means like guns, and once they bite you or get their blood on you, you're a goner. This is underscored in a horrifying scene early on in which Mark is splashed with infected blood, and Serena does away with him without so much as a tear in her eye. She informs Jim that if he is to get infected, she won't hesitate to do the same to him. As she puts it, "staying alive is as good as it gets."
This does hit upon an interesting idea that I felt the movie didn't really play up to my satisfaction. When there world is absent of entertainment, nice restaurants, baseball games, and other people, what do you actually live for? Serena puts it quite succinctly: to stay alive. Is there any need in the universe as simple and basic as the need to draw breath? After hooking up with another couple of uninfected people in the form of a father and teenage daughter, they discover that there is a goal to their existence: a static-filled radio message gives them coordinates to “salvation.” There is little information given, but the recorded message suggests that the uninfected are banding together at this location, and they will be safe for once. With a sudden reason to stay alive every day, the group heads toward the beacon with renewed vigor. But is salvation what they thought it would really be? And who exactly is the bad guy here: the mindless infected, or the brash humans that they are trying to destroy?
It is during this third act that the movie truly slows down to a crawl, and never really gets back up to full speed again. Once they have reached the sanctuary (a fortified mansion protected by a small band of military personnel), the film settles down in a dull and heavy-handed lesson that is to be learned about the infection. Nothing really happens except that the group is imprisoned by the soldiers, and they start to wonder if the human race getting wiped out is really all that bad of a thing. The sudden shift in gears from apocalyptic horror film to lessons in morality is a little jarring, though, and the third act just doesn’t seem to fit all that well. The energy and tension can be literally felt through the first hour or so of the film, only to suddenly disappear while the audience gets clubbed over the head with a "message."
I do have to admit, though, that the movie was not nearly as scary as I was led to believe by the previews. The previews featured shot after shot of red-eyed, wild zombies. However, throughout the length of the film, the protagonists only have close run-ins with the infected maybe two or three times. Things heat up slightly once they reach the safety of the military compound, but none of it really lives up to the promises made by the previews (the infected shown in the trailers are just about all the zombies seen in the film). I'm not sure why I even believe what I see in previews any more, but let's just say that if you get the impression that you will be seeing back-to-back zombie action in this film, you will leave sorely disappointed. What you do get, however, is an interesting take on the old zombie formula we have already seen in films like Dawn of the Dead. Instead of gut-wrenching horror and tension, we are instead creeped out with paranoia and claustrophobia. I know it's hard to believe that you can feel claustrophobic when the main characters are traveling through the countryside, but when they are the only people left that they know of, with terror around every corner, the world suddenly shrinks a little bit.
As far as the performances go, they are extremely well done for a film that has no major names in it (at least on this side of the Atlantic). Cilian Murphy is extremely believable as the confused but determined Jim. He is thrust into a world that is basically the one he used to know, but is totally alien to him, and you can feel his emotions. Survival doesn't seem all that honorable to him when he must dispatch of an infected who is only a child, and the look in his eyes says that maybe living isn't the most important thing in the world. Naomie Harris gives her steely best as Serena; even through only 28 days had past since the infection started, she has already seen more than her fair share of death and carnage. She does reflect this jaded view of the world very well, and even as she is being harassed by the soldiers late in the movie, it seems that nothing surprises her all that much anymore.
Much has been mad about the grainy, lo-fi look of the film, thanks to it being shot on video instead of regular film. Honestly, it is a noticeably bold look, and it really does add an entirely new element to many of the shots. Especially striking is the early sequence where Jim is wandering through abandoned downtown London. The colors are muted and depressing, even when bright images like sunsets are in the shot. The look of the movie is almost a supporting character in the film, and really adds emotion to it all.
28 Days Later really is a pretty good film, even in the horror genre. It brings up so many interesting ideas, especially with the horror involved in finding yourself all alone. However, it never really takes full advantage of any of the ideas that are presented, and instead seems content just to introduce some new ideas. As a horror film, it's not the best I've ever seen, and even as a drama, there are better films out there. However, as a horror/drama mixture, it works.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
tanta07
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Member: John
Location: Greeley, CO. USA
Reviews written: 212
Trusted by: 51 members
About Me:
The sunshine bores the daylights out of me.
Chasing shadows, moonlight mystery.
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