28 Days Later Review
by Susan Granger (ssg722 AT aol DOT com)June 30th, 2003
Susan Granger's review of "28 Days Later" (Fox Searchlight Pictures)
Horror pictures are far from my favorite genre but director Danny Boyle and writer Alex Garland make this into a doozy! Set in contemporary London, the story begins in the Cambridge Primate Research Center, as animal sympathizers inadvertently release rage-infected primates.
Cut to 28 days later, when Jim (Cillian Murphy) wakes up naked in a hospital after a bicycle accident and discovers that the entire city is ominously deserted. Wandering aimlessly, he's rescued from "infected" attackers by two fellow survivors (Naomie Harris, Noah Huntley) who explain how a deadly virus has devastated the British population. Spread by saliva or blood, it immediately incites its victim into a rabid, rage-filled zombie. "What's the government doing about it?" he asks. "There is no government," he's told. Indeed, anarchy reigns. One night, they encounter a teenager (Megan Burns) and her resourceful father (Brendan Gleeson), who hears on the radio that there's a safe haven just north of Manchester and loads the nomads into his big, black taxi to make the harrowing cross-country trek. When they arrive at the military outpost, they discover a heavily armed bunker where a megalomaniac (Christopher Eccleston) commands a few crazed soldiers who vow to protect them, if only to propagate the human species.
Utilizing Anthony Dod Mantle's eerie-yet-dingy digital video camerawork and editor Chris Gill's image manipulation, Danny Boyle ("Trainspotting") creates a bizarre atmosphere of grim, grotesque, apocalyptic violence, and credit John Murphy's music for heightening the suspenseful tension. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, "28 Days Later" is a brutal, gruesome, scary 7. Warning: this is not for the cowardly, the squeamish or those prone to nightmares.
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