28 Days Later
 It's
not too difficult these days to imagine a virulent
virus wiping out most of the world's population. In
such a nightmarish scenario, infrastructure would
quickly fail and civilization would collapse.
Survival would once again be won by the fittest.
But how much more difficult would it be if most of
the survivors were violent, bloodthirsty zombies?
No, I'm not talking about Night
of the Living Dead, but rather 28
Days Later.
I confess a certain morbid fascination with such
post-apocalyptic, end-of-the-world fictional
scenarios. I have a whole row of paperbacks on my
bookshelf dealing with this sub-genre, and I rank
such dark visions of the future as Planet
of the Apes, Soylent
Green and Mad
Max among my favorite science fiction
films. However, it's been a while since I've seen a
movie that captured the dread and loneliness of
what the end of the world must feel like. Duds like
Waterworld
and The
Postman (Costner ruined a great novel)
tried too hard, and cheeseballs like Armageddon
and Deep
Impact just tried to sell popcorn. In fact,
I have to think back as far as The
Quiet Earth to come up with a
post-apocalyptic film that had intelligence and
introspection.
Which is why I was looking forward to seeing
28 Days Later today (so much so that I went
to see it alone). Haunting visions of a man
wandering alone in a deserted, trash-strewn London
intrigued me. The reviews I read seemed favorable.
The premise—a virus runs rampant across
England, turning people into crazed
zombies—seemed a bit cliché and
possibly downright silly. But director Danny Boyle
(Trainspotting, Shallow Grave)
executed the story with intelligence and
originality. Introspective sequences of character
development drew you into the movie, making the
hair-raising thrills and chills—which were
rendered with more suspense and less gore than
you'd expect from a zombie movie—all the more
immediate.
I found myself thinking about this film long
after I watched the credits roll, which always
makes me feel like I got my money's worth. I'd call
28 Days Later a must-see for fans of the
genre, and firmly endorse it as a backup if your
first choice, that future Oscar winner Charlie's
Angels 2, is sold out.
©2003 Michael
Strickland ALL RIGHTS
RESERVED
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