’28 Days Later’ is a film that one would label a ‘zombie film’ if forced to describe the general pretence at short notice, but Danny Boyle’s 2002 horror flick is much more unique than just that.
To begin with the story of ’28 Days Later’, it does something remarkable. It takes the generic zombie movie that has been made a hundred times over since Romero’s ‘Night of the Living Dead’ (1968), and gives that same story a whole new level. Far from being a run-of-the-mill, heroes-hacking-up-monsters gore fest, 28 Days presents us with the most personal level of drama seen in a zombie film. We see the country falling a part because of ‘the infection’, and we see the consequences for the nation as a whole, but in this movie we are almost put through the entire ordeal ourselves, such is the audience’s intimacy with the main characters. Furthermore, it uses a tried and tested scenario to give us a focused tale of morality. The clear main theme of the film is survival and humanity, and where to draw the line between them. To begin with, the ‘infected’ (not actually zombies and so never named as such) represent survival – they are basically humans who have lost their humanity and thus become animals. They don’t love or envy, they just hunt and eat and sleep and survive. The remaining humans represent humanity, and the willingness to sacrifice oneself for others. This is something that Selena (Naomie Harris) in particular gains along the way. In the second ‘act’, the infected appear with less frequency, and the characters that represent the survival instinct are suddenly the military men that at first were thought to be salvation. With his friends in danger, Jim (Cillian Murphy), the beacon of humanity, has to come to the rescue. The irony is that by the end of the film, it is the ‘human’ that is running around shirtless, gouging people’s eyes out with his thumbs. However, this humanity is shown as mankind’s redeeming feature through the happy ending and the promise of survival anyway.
The narrative of the film is peculiar. Lacking a distinct beginning, middle and end, it instead seems to consist of two, maybe three ‘acts’: the inner-city, the road, and the military residence. This may be because the story of the film spans any number of days, though more likely it was a conscious decision by the writer (Alex Garland) to stretch out the time of the narrative and make the audience feel like they really are living through the time we are seeing on screen. It may not be to the liking of some, but I think it works perfectly fine.
By far the most noteworthy aspect of the film is the use of sound, whether it be the soundtrack or the effects. Boyle’s direction is superb when it comes to what we’re hearing. Right from the start we have an assault on our eardrums that gives us an immediate insight into the danger that is going to be present throughout the film, and this is followed up by complete silence as Jim discovers that the city is deserted. Now, this is perhaps the most famous part of the movie, where Murphy’s character is wandering the streets completely alone. I don’t know how they did it, but it’s fantastic. The silence and the tension seems to build up throughout this sequence, allowing us to parallel Jim’s rising panic and this kind of device so early on is an excellent way to draw an audience in and have them positioned with that one main character. After all, it is not Jim alone in the city, but Jim and ourselves alone in the city. We get the sense that whatever happens to him will happen to us. The other scene in which sound is put to such incredible use is the ‘tunnel scene’, in which the protagonists find themselves underground in the dark of a tunnel, and forced to change a flat tire before they’re overrun by the infected. This is also a well-known scene. I myself had seen it several times before watching the film today, and yet every time it manages to get my heart racing, such is the quality of the direction, the mounting desperation conveyed through the acting, the speedy cuts and slowly rising noise. Fantastic stuff.
The music in the film is a mixture of classical, original soundtrack and modern tunes, which are artfully combined in a way that, contrary to sounding tacky and uneasy, blends with a sort of irony. To give an example, we have the main characters driving through the countryside past mounds of tattered corpses, to an orchestrated, somewhat heavenly piece. The irony of it is almost funny, but works to great effect.
Lighting is something that is used in a mostly typical fashion for a horror film: day time=safety, night time=danger. It’s an old device, but it works just fine. One of the reasons this film was so successful is the fact that the makers where inventive enough to be unique, but not too inventive to try and reinvent the wheel. After all, why fix it if it isn’t broken? The other notable aspect of the lighting also covers the setting. The city sees shades of grey and black, almost like a giant, empty prison. As we progress into the countryside and the doubt of the characters begins to lift, we see more and more colour penetrating the screen.
To comment on the acting, most of the talent give solid performances. While I wasn’t keen on Cillian Murphy’s portrayal of Jim from the outset, as he seemed somewhat bland, he also seemed to express himself more as the story went on, ending of course in the crescendo of emotion that is the climax. The emotional journey that Selena goes on is believable, but feels as though it was somewhat behind the scenes. Perhaps we could have seen less of the countryside and more of the characters as they progressed through it. The only performance that was really disappointing was that delivered by Megan Burns, who played the young girl Hannah. Alright, we’ll let her off seeing as she’s just a youngster, but let’s just say I was glad she didn’t have that many lines.
To conclude, Danny Boyle’s 2002 horror-thriller is revolutionary, taking the ‘zombie film’ in a whole new direction until it is almost beyond recognition. Also there is a certain amount of action, gore and dismemberment, many teenage scream-fest fans will be disappointed to find that this particular piece of cinema is much more a fascinating social commentary than a bucket of blood.
My rating:
* * * *
(4/5 Stars)
-J. Boulton
