28 Days Later… (2002)

Directed by Danny Boyle
Cillian Murphy, Naomie Harris

In the early naughts the world’s movie houses were dank and dreary, reeking of over-priced popcorn, low expectations and lurching, pulse-less bodies. Then, amidst the staggering, groaning action-horror films, a long-dead genre came back to life with more oomph and chutzpah than before: zombie movies returned after being dead for nearly 20 years (since George A. Romero’s 1985 Day of the Dead, for the record). The most lively and original entry in this traditionally American genre came from England with terrorism, environmentalism, gender and class relations on its Rage-infected brain. Boyle (of Trainspotting fame) keeps the action moving swiftly from London’s 9/11-echoing streets into Britain’s (no longer) quaint countryside, the lot done in crisp visceral video – save the final cottage scene, shot on film (in this movie, going away from London means going back in time, and in filmmaking media). The pace keeps social commentary from feeling forced – except maybe when the soldiers want to establish a monstrous bourgeois patriarchy with red-gowned sex slaves in their fortified Victorian mansion – but also means the final role-reversal between kick-ass Selena (Harris) and wimpy-ass Jim (Murphy) doesn’t seem as glaring a sexist concession as it should.

This review will appear in the program for The L Magazine's Summerscreen outdoor cinema series.