28 Days Later

Directed by Danny Boyle

Starring Cillian Murphy, Naomi Harris,

Christopher Eccleston,

Brendan Gleeson, Megan Burns,

Noah Huntley

R4 DVD Release

The eerily and utterly empty streets of a looted London in the early scenes of "28 Days Later" are where this journey into terror begins. The film is seen through the eyes of Jim (Cillian Murphy), an injured bicycle messenger who has just awoken from a coma, not knowing where he is or what has happened. He is naked and alone in an empty hospital.

As he wanders the streets he finds nothing but looted cars, empty homes and rubbish. However then he begins to meet what is left of the inhabitants of London.

The back story to this is that when a band of animal-rights activists go to free a handful of obviously mistreated monkeys from a restricted laboratory they get more than they bargained for. The monkeys have been infected with rage, a new artificial virus so powerful that any contact with blood or bodily fluids within seconds induces bodily convulsions and then a fierce uncontrollable rage and bloodlust. As they attempt to release the animals they are infected and the virus spreads.

The story unfolds 28 days after the first infection.

Shot by experimental cinematographer Anthony Dod Mantle using odd angles, fast movements and handheld camera, the filming is innovative and confronting. It is enhanced by an aggressive music score and the use of staccato editing which creates a jittery sped-up visual effect to the zombie scenes.

The characters are interesting with Selena (Naomie Harris) being the cold, hard realist who later falls to Jim’s charms and a father and teenage daughter (Brendan Gleeson and Megan Burns) team which provide the more conventional family interest. I certainly found the daughter rather annoying and the sentimental moments a bit out of place. Jim was the least believable actor and as a lead really wasn’t strong enough to convince and this made later sections of the film difficult to believe.

The first half of the film is the most impressive; when we reach the army base things go a little awry. This is a shame because there is the most potential here for some interesting explorations. There are clear juxtapositions made between the mindless violence of the zombies and the mindlessness of the unstable soldiers and the rage of the zombies and the more justified rage of Jim in defending the women.

However, this is only explored in brief and the whole army base scene seems too short and seems to have been rushed. There is so much obvious potential in these scenes and yet it seems overlooked. The battle between Jim and the army crew seems a little farcical and just doesn’t gel. He is not a strong enough figure and is running around without weapons and shirtless batting a crew of hardened soldiers. There is little tension and this section seems to lack the mood and feel of the much more successful earlier sections of the film.

The ending is downright sugary and totally out of place, this is a film which seems to be trying to leave you challenged and frightened and yet ends with a sort of Disney happy family conclusion.

This is an innovative and impressive film, which still seems far better than most, but it could have been so much more.