28 Days Later (UK)

God I love this film. If the British film industry can do one good thing it`s horror. Non self-refereential, no stupid comedic moments, just plain horror. It is not without flaws but the filmakers were at the mercy of a budget that would not pay most Hollywood actor`s dry cleaning bills. It creates an image of England that is even more scary than the real thing. The film does follow some typical movie cliche routes but it`s an unfortunate rule that sometimes you have to inorder that the story has a well defined beginning, middle and end. I would of loved to seen what this would of looked shot on film, but I admire the DV decision, it should open up the door for more low budget film makers, the British film industry despeartely needs some talent.
To conclude, a truly awesome piece of cinema, fingers crossed for the Dawn of the Dead remake.

thank the lord for 28 Days Later, at last a decent British Horror film, or for that fact a decent British film. I`m not a fan of Danny Boyle or his films (Trainspotting and Shallow Grave) but this film is an enjoyable mix of sheer terror and bloodthirsty visuals.
As the film was shot on DV, the picture quality does faulter in some of the scenes and the DD 5.1 backs the film up with clear sounds and movements.
Extras wise the disc has some juicy extras. The `Radical Alternate Ending` being the best. It is all storyboarded and completly changes the third act of the film, it`s really enjoyable and interesting to find out what the film could of turned out like. The Deleted Scenes are ok, just the usual and the rest is makerting Material etc, and the documentary `Pure Rage` is boring as hell and doesn`t give us much background into the production of the film.

This movie has elements of the horror genre but it does not ending up becoming a horror movie. It ends up being an army or a revenge movie. It infact is a cross genre film that does not specifically belong to any particular genre. If I had to choose, thriller would be the best way to sum it up. A great british movie from the director of trainspotting. British cinema has been brilliant recently with hits like Dog Soldiers and this movie. The movie basically follows Jim, who wakes up 28 days later to find the world an empty and changed place. He later finds out that a virus has spread accross Britain, causing the infectants to go into a violent blood thirsty rage almost instantly. With most of the population wiped out, Jim meets and goes in search of more survivors.

The video is crisp and sharp but at some points does seem to be grainly. I think this was intended by the director to create an eerie effect and it does so well. The sound also is very good. Loud, sharp and a treat to hear.

There are a few interesting extras like the making of. The alternate ending is just the original ending without Jim and was a waste of time to watch. I didnt have time to sift through it but there was another alt ending told through storyboards which looked interesting.

Top brit flick, guaranteed to give hollywood a run for their money. A great entertaining thriller that is definetly worth seeing.

28 Days Later is a brilliant film. It is a dark vision of a post apocalypse future, with a sense of realism hardly ever achieved in a film like this (maybe it hits home because of the current SARS virus). It is truly scary not due to the monsters but due to the lack of hope the main characters experience. They are normal people like you and I and they are force to face overwhelming odds. This is coupled with the fact that everybody they knew is dead, and everybody that they now know they might have to kill at any second. Superb direction and acting and such a small budget just makes what has been achieved here even more impressive. This is the best British movie for some time.

If there is a fault with the film then it is when they meet the soldiers things do get bogged down a little. However the infected verses the army shoot out scene is spectacular. I can`t help feeling though that it would have been nicer if time in the soldiers camp had played a much smaller part. Another problem is highlighted by the extras on the DVD and that the decided upbeat ending just doesn`t sit well with the rest of the film. The original ending (with the two surviving characters leaving the hospital) was far darker and much better.

While threat frequently arrives from all directions, it's the countless attacks from the Infected that stick in the mind, and Boyle has created some terrifying adversaries, overturning the shambling zombie clichés by employing ex-athletes to give the virus victims an intimidating amount of speed and power. They run, they vomit gallons of blood, and from the first twenty minutes onwards it's impossible not to be continually on the edge, nervously awaiting the next attack. With an effectively drawn subtext- that it's only a tiny psychological barrier which separates the survivors from the Infected, and eventually it's a barrier that has to be crossed in order to survive- this is dark, bold horror that avoids gratuitous gore but isn't afraid to hack people to pieces with machetes as long as it's just out of sight.

The first major horror film to shoot on Digital Video for practical rather than artistic reasons (filming the "empty London" sequences would have been impossible without multiple video cameras), it's given the film a grubby energy and conviction that adds to the impact and avoids Dogme-style shakycam, while there's an effective collection of performances anchored by the excellent Murphy as the shell-shocked Everyman trying to find his way in the new world. Horrorphobes and cynics will find some conventional characterisation and several nagging implausibilities to wag their fingers at (Would a black cab really be such an effective all-terrain vehicle?), but these are minor problems in a genuinely impressive film. For anyone in the mood for something fiercer and wilder than the tepid fright-flicks Hollywood has recently been peddling, this is a full-on, violent and utterly British apocalypse to savour.

Watched 28 Days Later on Thursday night with my good lady and can honestly say it was one of the best post apocalyptic movies I have seen for a while.
The opening shots in the laboratory at the research centre added a very interesting twist to the whole animal experiments tale. However that is another story.
To the film.
After the initial meeting of the trio it seemed as though everything would evolve around the trio surviving. When the trio became a duo it was quite a shock, though not unexpected, it still came a little earlier in the movie than I anticipated.
At the sight of the lights flashing in the high rise flat I instantly thought of the "Coca-Cola / venetian blinds" morse message scene in "On The Beach". I thought that the lights in the flat may have been simply lights that were left on and the occupants had died or became infected and ran off but thankfully that was not the case. The scene where the duo were climbing the many flights of stairs to reach the flat was quite atmospheric with a chilling side to it . They heard noises and looked down the stairwell only to see a couple of the infected speeding towards them which obviously forced them onwards and upwards to whatever sanctuary the flat above may hold. Thinking about such a scenario is quite frightening in itself.
I particularly felt for the Father and daughter. They had lived in relative comfort and safety. Yet all the while they realised that at some point they would have to leave the safety of "Home" to either seek out other uninfected survivors or to find food.
The journey to "Safety" was fraught with the expected dangers. However the "Safety" afforded at the military outpost was a very chilling vision of what changes could or would happen to normal peoples morality or scruples.
It seemed that the only person who had any idea that the rest of the world was still functioning was the sergeant. Yet the troop ignored his views while revelling in their own feelings of superiority and the posession of ultimate power in their own corner of the world.
I found the sight of the trails in the sky behind the jet a simple yet quite brilliantly used sign to show that the world outside still existed.
IMHO this movie is well worth watching again and next time I may watch the extras.

If I had to use one word and one word only to describe the movie, my word would definitely be ATMOSPHERE.
This movie is all about atmosphere. Forget Hollywood`s million dollars special effects. There are very few things that have an impact as the empty London scene. Absolutely stunning.
The video transfer is very good. The colors vary from desaturated to overly saturated and help create one of the eeriest atmospheres I saw lately. There are no compression sings at all and the picture is well framed.
The DD 5.1 soundtrack is very good. The surrounds are used nicely and help enhancing the creepy atmosphere.
The menus are animated with sound.
The extras include a commentary by the director and writer, a behind the scenes featurette, 7 deleted scenes, 2 alternate endings, storyboards, 2 picture galleries with matching commentaries and a music video.
Bottom line - this movie is the proof you don`t need millions of millions of dollars (or pounds) to create a great movie. Recommended.

These people must have seen a different film than we did in Canada, because my horror-thriller fan friends and I were hooting and laughing derisively throughout the screening at this ludicrous mess.

Yes, an interesting idea, but the execution was dreadful from the word go. The equivalent of a germ warfare lab - in the middle of a major capital city? And so lightly defended a bunch of eco-terrorists can break in? Yeah, right. Then, plunging from the absurd to the outright ridiculous you`ve got the main character somehow surviving WEEKS in a coma with no food or water? Uh, starvation? Dehydration? He should be DEAD, much less able to outrun the plague victims. Then there`s the horribly inconsistent characterizations. Consider the tough-as-nails-do-anything-to-survive female. In one scene she coldly shoots her friend because it`s him or them. Shortly after, she`s taking SLEEPING PILLS to sleep more SOUNDLY with infected running around??? Not to mention how she then turns into a weak, `save me` type when faced with the military? We nearly threw up at that one. Oh, and the military? Trained observers who somehow failed to notice those plane things going overhead, signaling civilization had not come and gone after all? And how could it? Infected lose all capacity for rational thought in literally seconds. How can the plague spread to the continent? One of the infected flies a plane over? Yet nobody thought of this? Yeah, right.

And with Britain`s military/economic complex having thoroughly collapsed, what was keeping paranoid Russia or some other power(s) from saturation fire-bombing of England to prevent the slightest chance of the plague virus surviving?

Then there`s the hopelessly inept director. There`s our `hero` wandering the dead, silent streets of London. So, what does that hack director do to accentuate this atmosphere of silent death? A loud, raucous rock soundtrack. Do the words "horrifyingly inappropriate" ring a bell here? Or when he decides to go the painfully grainy `home video` look. What good showing us that wall with probably lots of earful memorials when the camera is so out of focus we can`t really see what`s there?

Yet this waste of celluloid managed to garner a sequel? If that doesn`t speak loudly to the wretched state of the movie industry today, I don`t know what does.