28 DAYS LATER (18) Directed by: Danny Boyle. Starring: Cillian Murphy, Naomie Harris, Megan Burns, Brendan Gleeson, Christopher Eccleston Life can be unpredictable. One minute you’re the shining hope of the British Film Industry, riding high on the zeitgeist-defining film of the moment… the next, you’re staggering in the wake of a big-budget disappointment, wishing you’d never heard the name Leonardo DiCaprio. Thankfully, the whole experience of THE BEACH seems to have been good for Danny Boyle, and he’s ram-raided his way back into Cinemas with the aid of an army of blood-spewing zombies to deliver a visionary, energetic and shamelessly entertaining horror movie. A post-millenial crossbreed of DAY OF THE TRIFFIDS and DAWN OF THE DEAD, after a startling and violent prologue showing the accidental release of a “Rage Virus”, there’s one of the most impressive and iconic film openings in years as, twenty eight days later, dazed bike courier Jim (Irish actor Cillian Murphy) wakes from a coma to find he’s missed the end of the world. As he wanders through empty streets, London seems to be a deserted city… until he finds himself running for his life from an army of crimson-eyed psychos intent on tearing him limb from limb. Thanks to the Rage virus spreading at an incredible rate and infecting in seconds via the tiniest drop of blood, civilisation has closed for business. There’s no government and no hope of rescue, so for the few people left uninfected there’s a simple question to be asked- exactly how far are they prepare to go in order to survive?

After a whole slew of American end-of-the-world movies, it’s a breath of fresh air to see an unashamedly British take on the concept, a down-and-dirty vision that’ll bring back memories for anyone who ever read a James Herbert novel under the covers at 14, or stared in slack-jawed horror at Eighties nuclear nightmare THREADS. An original screenplay from THE BEACH author Alex Garland, the story borrows from a whole selection of sources, swiftly evolving from bleak urban action to a surreal road-movie and climaxing with a brilliantly traumatic sequence of pure grand-guignol horror. Almost all the ingredients are familiar (even down to the hard-boiled female lead who has to learn to be a human being again), but it’s the little details and the gritty sense of reality that makes the movie come alive. This is a a post-apocalyptic world where survivors raid the local Budgens for supplies and escape from London in a Black Cab, and there’s no obvious solution to the problems faced- even the “alternative society” encountered in the film’s third act is built on morally unpleasant foundations. While threat frequently arrives from all directions, it’s the countless attacks from the Infected that stick in the mind, and Boyle has created some terrifying adversaries, overturning the shambling zombie clichés by employing ex-athletes to give the virus victims an intimidating amount of speed and power. They run, they vomit gallons of blood, and from the first twenty minutes onwards it’s impossible not to be continually on the edge, nervously awaiting the next attack. With an effectively drawn subtext- that it’s only a tiny psychological barrier which separates the survivors from the Infected, and eventually it’s a barrier that has to be crossed in order to survive- this is dark, bold horror that avoids gratuitous gore but isn’t afraid to hack people to pieces with machetes as long as it’s just out of sight. The first major horror film to shoot on Digital Video for practical rather than artistic reasons (filming the “empty London” sequences would have been impossible without multiple video cameras), it’s given the film a grubby energy and conviction that adds to the impact and avoids Dogme-style shakycam, while there’s an effective collection of performances anchored by the excellent Murphy as the shell-shocked Everyman trying to find his way in the new world. Horrorphobes and cynics will find some conventional characterisation and several nagging implausibilities to wag their fingers at (Would a black cab really be such an effective all-terrain vehicle?), but these are minor problems in a genuinely impressive film. For anyone in the mood for something fiercer and wilder than the tepid fright-flicks Hollywood has recently been peddling, this is a full-on, violent and utterly British apocalypse to savour. * * * * * Saxon Bullock. www.saxonbullock.com Tell us what you think of 28 Days on our forum now!

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