Summary:

A group of animal rights activists breaks into a simian research facility to free the chimpanzees that are being used in laboratory experiments. What they don’t know is that the chimps have been infected with an experimental virus that is, simply put, pure murderous rage. Twenty eight days later, a man named Jim awakens in a London hospital to find that most of the rest of the city is simply gone, inhabited only by zombie-like creatures that have been infected with the virus. The task at hand: survival.

Steve says:

Wily film marketers should have held on to 28 DAYS LATER until the Halloween season because, unlike most of the so-called “scare-fare” that is usually unleashed at that time of year, this one will frighten the bejeesus out of you.

Brit director Danny Boyle (TRAINSPOTTING, THE BEACH) and writer Alex Garland have put together a film that keeps the viewer unhinged from the very first scene.

Most of the movie is alleged to have been shot on high definition video. I say “alleged” because the image is anything but high def, looking so washed out and dirty that you can almost see scan lines. This conceit, used up until the film’s final scene, serves to keep the audience even further on edge because it’s sometimes difficult to see what is going on at precisely the moment when you most want to know where everyone is and what they are doing. I was initially thrown that a director of Boyle obvious gifts would settle for such a poor image quality until I realized that it was another visual trick to keep me off balance, which it most certainly did. Having motored through the English countryside, I can attest that it is truly beautiful. Not so here, where the British landscape looks like it’s sick and dying, bereft of any tonal range whatsoever.

You’ll see no stars in this one, which also helps lend credence to the idea that what we are seeing is actually happening, documentary style. Had Boyle elected to use Brad Pitt or Leonardo diCaprio, we would have been lulled into a sense of security knowing that nothing really terrible was going to happen to either of these mega-stars apart from possibly getting the wrong sandwich delivered to their trailers during lunch break.

Actors Cillian Murphy and Naomie Harris carry most of the action squarely on their shoulders, with able support from young Megan Burns and veteran Irish actor, Brendan Gleeson, the only familiar face in the film thanks to his work in American films such as MISSION IMPOSSIBLE II, AI: ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE and GANGS OF NEW YORK.

If you don’t like being scared at the movies, you should probably cruise on past the theater showing 28 DAYS LATER...and settle for a bit of mindless twaddle like CHARLIE’S ANGELS TWO. But if you’re anything like me, loving every nail-biting minute of a truly scary movie, this one will, as Randy Newman put it, give you reason to live. Run, don’t walk, to the screen nearest you, score a big tub of popcorn and an obscenely huge drink and see 28 DAYS LATER. But don’t forget the Depends. You’re gonna need ‘em. (In retrospect, you might skip the obscenely huge drink).

I only award five kernels if I believe the filmmakers fully achieved what they set out to do. Boyle and company wanted to scare us good and, in that respect, 28 DAYS LATER...was a line drive through center field and over the fence. Five kernels indeed.

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Patty says:

Five kernels is a lot for a film in which I had my head buried the majority of the time. It was scary. I was frankly grateful that you couldn't distinguish whether the red-eyed ghouls were gnawing away at a neck or a femur. Not since NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD have so many extras had to line up at the craft services table for plasma shakes between takes. The only thing scarier than the nearly dead were some of the few remaining uninfected.

There isn't much stuff that I'm really afraid of in real life. Spiders and snakes don't bother me, bad politicians have term limits and Steve rarely cooks, but otherwise, I don't scare easily. I don't like stuff that surprises me, however. Ever have a grasshopper jump on your neck when you're half-asleep in your lawn chair? It’s like that. Any woman who has ever had the elastic in her pantyhose suddenly give out knows exactly what I'm talking about. Unexpected pregnancy during menopause falls into the same category.

Surprises should be limited to artfully wrapped little blue boxes from Tiffany's. This film is full of things that jump out and shock you. I liked it in spite of that. Steve will tell you that I'm a great audience. What he means by that is, in a crowded theater, I am the loudest screamer, the first to fling myself into the lap of the person next to me (hopefully, it's someone I know) and will hide my eyes at the first hint of bloodshed. I don't know how Steve sees the film since he's so busy making fun of me. In this film I had my head buried a lot. It was bloody, suspenseful, intriguing and scared the pee out of me. I actually liked it.

The film has merit for an original adaptation of several themes we've seen before. Unlike Steve, I liked the presentation. The acting was first rate and unlike much of what Hollywood has released lately, it was worth seeing. However, I'm not going to give something that caused such a painful two-hour-long constriction of my sphincter five kernels. Four and a half.

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June 28, 2003