28 Days Later

This is a movie that has the goods, and knows it has the goods almost from the start. 

Confidence means an awful lot in a horror flick. 

Not so much in the actual start of the film which is a bit of business to explain the Rage virus which will create fast zombies and set up the entire movie. 

It’s the kind of scene that multiple people probably decided was necessary so that you wouldn’t lose the audience.

It feels like a scene in a lesser movie. 

However, the real opening of the real movie is Cillian Murphy waking up 28 Days Later (natch) in a hospital after being in a coma. 

He is completely alone and walks through an empty London trying to determine what happened and what he should do. 

It’s a stunning and eerie scene and its power is only heightened because we have now seen similar images in real life thanks to COVID-19. 

I feel certain I saw this when it came out though I don’t know if it was in a theater or at home. Watching it again I remembered several story points but forgot others. It feels familiar, not only because it’s been copied in television and film for 30 years but also because it’s built on the bones of great zombie and horror films of the past. 

These aren’t George Romero zombies but the movie is full of Romero’s themes. 

What’s striking about it, I think, is that this is a zombie film that has insight into our basic humanity. 

It’s not a film about goblins and jump scares (though there’s plenty of both) but a film about families struggling to survive and about how hardship can turn us into our best and worst selves. 

It’s also just a banging action picture with inventive cinematography, an amazing score and out of their world acting by four premiere talents in Cillian Murphy, Brendan Gleason, Naomie Harris and Christopher Eccleston. I mean … read those names again. 

There are all kinds of great movies and ways to make great movies. This one is a propulsive thriller that makes every moment count. Even in the down times the sense of dread and tension remain. It doesn’t have a false scene (except for the previously discussed plot required opening) or a false note. 

As the hype for 28 Years Later got serious I decided I would revisit the first one, watch the sequel — 28 Weeks Later —- and go see the new one this weekend. 

I’ll save my thoughts on the other two for later this week. 

Pop culture is a funny thing because in revisiting this I’m confident that 28 Days Later is a perfect horror film and probably should be in a top 100 list amongst the greatest films (just films) ever. 

And yet, I had completely forgotten it until this week. But it isn’t it grand to find an old love and discover she is as wonderful as you remembered.