28 Days Later (2002) Movie Review, Trailer, Film Still and Poster

UK 2002
Director: Danny Boyle
Cast: Cillian Murphy, Naomie Harris, Noah Huntley, Brendan Gleeson, Christopher Eccleston
Rating: R
Release Date: 1 November 2002
Running Time: 1 hour 49 minutes

The Movie Review

28 Days Later film still 1


28 DAYS LATER
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While watching 28 Days Later, it got me thinking, about Hybrid.
Hybrid cars? Good. Hybrid animals? Fantastic. What about Hybrid Zombies...? Spectacular! No..., make that Spectacularly-daunting!
But the core of Hybrid is invention, and 28 Days Later really re-invented Zombie genre with its hybrid zombie creatures.

Growing up with lots of horror movies and literature around me, seeing Zombie movies, honestly, always felt more like watching a fun adventure film but filled with rottin'-n-walkin' stinkin' dudes. Nothing scary. But then again, like I used to say, with the exception of George A. Romero's Night of the Living Dead (1968), which made me stay awake for the whole night terrified back in childhood. That Romero's movie is good, and some of zombie movies afterwards were also 'fun' to view. But when I watched it back in 2003, 28 Days Later gave me back that chill down the spine, that intense feeling and adrenaline rushing that I miss from zombie flicks.

28 Days Later tells the story of people of United Kingdom who live in Post-Apocalyptic era. An era of chaos and destruction, not to mention moral degradation. A young man named Jim (Cillian Murphy) suddenly awakes after a comma and finds himself left alone in a hygienic but abandoned hospital in the central London, UK, Confused by the situation, he tries to go outside only to find that the city is no longer inhabited. What has happened? So he just keeps on walking in puzzlement. Lucky for him, in the nick of time, two agile people, Selena (Naomie Harris) and Mark (Noah Huntley) rescue him and in their shelter they explain everything to him about the current situation. It turns out that an extremely-contagious virus has spreaded which turns people into some-kind of rabies-infected animal. Once a healthy people getting bitten, it's just a matter of seconds before they mutate into zombie.

Selena leads Jim and Mark to go and find other survivors while trying to protect each other. Will they find other people? Could they ever escape London? What will happen to them considering they might've been the only people living in London and the city is no choked-full of zombies?

Knowing that this zombie movie was Directed by the same person behind the bold Trainspotting (1996), The Beach (2000), and of course the Academy Award 2009 big winner Slumdog Millionaire (2008), should have given fellow horror fans some sort of guarantee that 28 Days Later will be great. If you're thinking at least like that, then you could not be more right.

If you could still have the chukling when watching other zombie movies either because of the awful make up or the awkward storyline or even zombie-love, then in 28 Days Later, it's the intensity that all we could experience. It's the idea of being isolated, of being alone and having nowhere to go despite the vast area of London that makes this movie a very serious horror. And for this type of uniqueness, casting Cillian Murphy was a great choice. Aside from his great acting performance, he's also a perfect actor to be illustrate the real-life situation. Cillian as Jim is not a burly, hero-type figure, he's just an ordinary young guy even slim just like most of us are.

28 Days Later has some bloody scenes too (what would a zombie movie do without blood?), but the gore or the other munched body parts are the main 'attraction' of this zombie show. The fast pace makes every encounter with the zombies become more intense and heart-pounding. Simply because the zombies could run and savage-like creature instead of walking slowly. And staying true to some of old zombie flicks, it wouldn't be complete without social insinuation of moral degradation (in some way). Which would suck Jim and Selena into deeper trouble.

If you want to experience a great zombie flick, 28 Days Later is one of those great movies to watch. Along with its sequel, 28 Weeks Later (2007), that could even top 28 Days Later. Just mind you that there's no 'fun' as in comedy in this horror movie, with the exception of minor joke like the apron-wearing soldier or Cillian talks with his mouth full, but 28 Days Later is all about two things...freakin' fast zombie and horror.