28 Days Later

2002's 28 DAYS LATER is a highly regarded horror film that despite its terrifying premise, wasn't all that scary to me.  Not in the traditional horror movie sense, anyway.   The reason: director Danny Boyle's film is so kinetic I felt more wound up and stressed out than scared.  Things happen so quickly and aggressively - and filmed with such jangly energy - that I felt more anxious than unnerved.   Boyle's high style filmmaking often suits his material, but for this story, scripted by Alex Garland, a slow burn suspense approach would've made its unthinkable scenario that much more effective. 

A young man named Jim (Cillian Murphy) has been in a coma for nearly a month.  When he awakens, he finds a deserted hospital that has been trashed, and the streets of London empty.  Except for some highly aggressive, red eyed blokes who want to eat him.  While Jim was sleeping, Great Britain (and eventually the world) was overrun by a virus that originated with an infected monkey in a testing lab.  During the film's prologue, animal activists release the primate without knowing its terrible secret.  Once again, no good deed goes unpunished.

Jim will find a handful of uninfected souls, including a tough young woman named Selena (Naomie Harris) and a father and daughter (Brendan Gleeson and Megan Burns) who've discovered a radio broadcast announcing that a military compound in Manchester will offer protection for survivors and even a cure for the virus.  That latter perhaps a red flag, but the quartet makes the perilous journey, leading to an outpost blockade of scrappy soldiers led by the congenial Major Henry West (Christopher Eccleston).  Jim will soon learn what that "cure" really is.

28 DAYS LATER is briskly paced and exciting.  It does pause for some contemplative moments and character sketching.  The film is never less than involving.  So much so in fact that I began to overlook how shitty the digital photography (by Anthony Dod Mantle) really was.  I realize the intention, to make the chaos appear like some blurry newscast or low budget documentary.  To create a sense of confusion and urgency.  It still looks awful.  Maybe if some 16mm had been used...?

Suspense was minimal.  I'm more impressed with atmosphere building and implication.  Sure, you can assault us with rabid zombies (that word is never used here) all you want but merely creating frenzied set pieces does not a horror film make.   And having it all look like some bad TV drama didn't help.  Garland and Boyle's points about how mankind's folly can only lead to such a horrible scenario are  quite not as deep as they should've been.  Living through a real pandemic has also dulled some of this film's power. 

But 28 DAYS LATER is a good movie, one with more humanity than I was expecting.  The scene where Jim discovers his parents is one of several heartbreaking, praiseworthy bits.