28 Days Later (2002)

Director: Danny Boyle

Story: Alex Garland

Cast: Cillian Murphy, Naomie Harris, Megan Burns

Music: John Murphy

Time: 113 minutes

Bottom-line: Scary for sure; but that’s pretty much all there is to it

Danny Boyle’s post-apocalyptic horror film gives a new avatar to the vampire genre. Starring Cillian Murphy and Naomi Harris in the lead roles, the film yet again proves Boyle’s ability to make good low-budget films. The supporting cast includes Noah Huntley and Brendan Gleeson.

Cambridge: Three animal activists break into a research laboratory and plan to release the captive chimpanzees. The doctor informs them that the animals are infected with a rage-inducing virus, but they ignore his pleas. One chimp infects an activist, who then infects everyone else in the lab. 28 days later, Jim (Murphy) regains consciousness in a hospital, and finds it deserted. As he roams about the streets, he attracts the attention of some infected people, but is saved by Mark (Huntley) and Selena (Harris). Jim learns that almost the entire population of London has been infected. Selena and Jim meet a father-daughter couple who are also uninfected: Frank (Gleeson) and Hannah (Burns). One day, they receive news over the radio that “the cure has arrived”. Calculating their odds of survival, they decide to follow the message. Is it a trap? Or does the cure really exist?

 

Murphy as Jim

Once again, a Danny Boyle film is about survival (along with Trainspotting, which dealt with survival against drug addiction, and his later film, 127 Hours). The cinematography, graphic violence and gore are all the usual Boyle trademarks. While the story is scary – both visually, and in concept – I felt there could have been a little more depth: some suspense or science fiction and not just gore. The last half hour or so seems hurried, but the ending was neat. There are other alternate versions of the climax, but the one that was actually used seems to be the best.

 

Harris as Selena

Cillian Murphy playing the good guy was new to me, after having seen him portray the villain, Scarecrow, in Batman Begins, and a neutral character in Inception. He doesn’t have that look of a body-builder, even less so of a hero. I felt that same with Naomie Harris; something about the lead actors didn’t quite suit the characters they portrayed. Nevertheless, Harris portraying the powerful and determined heroine was exciting to watch, and earned her several “breakthrough performance” awards. Megan Burns as Hannah also did a terrific job.

 

Burns as Hannah

There’s not much science, but a lot of violence and blood, so it’s not a comfortable watch (then again, which Boyle film is?). The concept of an entire city being wiped out seems interesting, but leaves little scope for developing a story, but Garland’s story with Boyle’s direction, overall, have given us a decent film.

My Rating: 3/5

Rotten Tomatoes rating: 87%