28 Days Later (2002)

Directed by Danny Boyle. Starring Cillian Murphy, Naomie Harris, Brendan Gleeson, Christopher Eccleston, Megan Burns, Stuart McQuarrie, Noah Huntley, Ricci Harnett. [R]

Twenty-eight days into a catastrophic “zombie” virus epidemic, coma patient Murphy awakens to discover that society has collapsed in England, and he joins up with a few survivors to try and find salvation. Bleak and furious horror pic delivers the visceral thrills with as much blunt sledgehammer force as its political allegory; lacking subtlety isn’t a fatal issue, but there’s too little variety to the whole “we’re even worse than they are” message that George Romero had already sufficiently plied many years before in his first few undead pictures. Though it would have been even more potent had the filmmakers dropped the prologue that preceded Murphy’s eerie ghost town tour of London—especially for any viewers who went in cold, not knowing what the movie was about—it’s still a startlingly effective and disquieting sequence. Boyle’s aggressive directorial technique coupled with Anthony Dod Mantle’s grungy digital handheld photography creates a rough, immediate, and memorable aesthetic, even if the attack scenes are often such a hyperactive, choppy blur that it’s tough to tell what’s happening, who’s being attacked, etc. Followed by a sequel: 28 Weeks Later.

72/100