28 Days Later by Writer Alex Garland
Director: Danny Boyle
Starring: Cillian Murphy, Naomie Harris, and Christopher Eccleston
Publisher: Fox Searchlight Pictures (through 20th Century Fox)
Genre: Science Fiction, Horror, Contemporary
Rating: 4 Stars (8 Stars on IMDB)
Reviewed by Astilbe

Four weeks after a mysterious, incurable virus spreads throughout the United Kingdom, a handful of survivors try to find sanctuary.

In anticipation of 28 Years Later being released later on this year, let’s see if fast zombies are scarier than the slow ones.

The opening scenes were among the scariest ones I’ve ever watched in this genre. Imagine waking up in the hospital, meeting a zombie a short while later, but having no clue what you’re dealing with! I was grateful to have started watching while the sun was still shining brightly outside because my heart was pounding as Jim had to outrun something that still didn’t make any sense to him. This is a theme that has been repeated multiple times in other zombie flicks, and yet it still grabs my attention every time.

One of the things I liked the most about this film was how clearly the origins of this outbreak were explained in the beginning. No, not every twist and turn was revealed, but there was more than enough information to understand what sort of illness the characters were dealing with and how it managed to spread so fast when the source of it was under such tight surveillance…or so the authorities thought.

Take note of these early moments because the information in them might very well come in handy later on. That, too, was exciting because it gave me something to puzzle over while also watching the characters run from one danger and, sometimes, straight into yet another situation that isn’t exactly what it appeared to be at first glance.

I would have liked to see more attention paid to the character development. No, I didn’t need monologues or anything, especially given how action-packed this was, but I found myself accidentally blending the main characters together in my mind because of how similarly they reacted to the same threats. Knowing more about the backstories of protagonists who aren’t named Jim would have helped me to keep them separate and connect to them on a deeper level.

The ending fit the characters and plot nicely, and that’s something I’m saying as a viewer who was a little confused by it at first due to how much the storyline needed to slow down in order for things to pan out. After an hour and a half of adrenaline surges, I needed a little time to adjust and try to figure out what might happen to the characters next. With that being said, it was worth the wait and made me eager to see 28 Weeks Later next which I will be reviewing here in the near future.

28 Days Later breathed fresh air into this genre and it something every zombie fan should watch.