Movie Review: 28 Days Later

By CHRISTOPHER J. ORTIZ
The Rocky Mountain Collegian, Colorado State University

28 Days Later
Fox Searchlight Pictures

Let me introduce the Rage, a virus easily contracted by blood and bodily fluids that causes the victim to have zombie-like traits and characteristics; i.e. drunken appearance, a craving for humans, blood-soaked eyes and the ability to scare the crap out of you. We also learn that the virus as an incubation period of about 20 seconds and that is about all you need to know going into this movie.
Our two survivors, Jim (Cillian Murphy) and Selena (Naomie Harris) join up together and their differences are perfectly played out in the movie. Jim, who woke up in a hospital bed from a coma 28 days later, is still trying to make sense of the changed world around him, and Selena, who has survived for a month, has accepted the fact that she will never read another book that has not already been written or see a movie that has not already been shot. When the two meet up with a father and daughter, Selena explains that if they were to slow her down she would leave them but Jim reassures himself and Selena that he would not.
The only downfall in this movie is going to be for people who are expecting another Night of the Living Dead because by definition this movie is not an actual zombie movie; the people who we are suppose to be afraid of are not the walking dead, they are the infected, the term used in the movie for people who have Rage.
The movie becomes a movie more about survival and human nature rather than a running away from zombies and staying away from dark places, but true to horror movies, the characters end up doing things that we know is only going to get them in danger; going through dark tunnels, going into dark buildings for no obvious reasons.
Shot entirely on digital handheld cameras, director Danny Boyle (Trainspotting, The Beach) delivers a top-notch script with sharp acting and scary fun. This movie is so scary and so frightening that you will have to go see it a second time to see what you missed with your eyes covered.

B+