The General Story:
After an intense opening scene I won’t ruin, a man awakens in a hospital after
being in a coma for about a month. Getting out of bed, he walks out of his room
to an empty corridor, an empty hospital, then onto the streets of an empty
London. He soon comes across the only living inhabitants of the city; savage,
wild and red-eyed people trying to bite him. He’s picked up by some other
survivors, and we learn that England has fallen to some kind of infection,
carried through people who bite others or spit blood on them. With no power, no
phones, and no sign of any help, the survivors band together and live to escape,
any way they can.
What influenced the
movie: Zombie movies began all the way back in the 1930’s, but it was with
George A. Romero’s “Night of the Living Dead” from 1968 that really got things
going. The film was ground-breaking for its time, introducing audiences to a
new kind of monster that would give vampires, werewolves and aliens a run for
their money. Over the years, the “Zombie Genre” was revisited and reinvented,
and seemed to have lost all steam and respect in the 90’s, with trashy sequels to
original classics. Not a genre of films highly respected by most, but British
filmmaker Danny Boyle, hot off the heels of “Trainspotting” had plans to not
only revive zombie films, but completely reinvent them.
How the movie influenced
the 00's: 28 Days Later took this once tired genre into new territory in a
blistering, no-holds bar kind of way, showing us what it might be like were zombies
to be real. However, you won’t hear the word zombie uttered once in the film,
as they are simply called “The Infected” here. The film’s stark imagery, realistic
undertones, well-drawn characters carried by brilliant performances, and a never-ending
sense of foreboding and dread, created a formula of zombie’s films which took
this genre to a new place. Suddenly, the fall of the world to the rise of the
undead became seemingly possible, and we met characters who weren’t just two-dimensional
idiots posing as zombie food waiting to be picked off, but rather real people,
with genuine emotions and motivations, trying to make sense of life after most
had died.
What makes it stand
out as a film of the 00's: Danny Boyle made the world sit up and take
notice of the British film scene again after the huge success of Trainspotting,
leading it to garner its own cult following. And as the world stage grew
smaller via the internet and an increasingly more connected relationship
between our neighbouring countries, seeing a story like this take place in London
didn’t make it feel exclusively English, but rather made us believe this could
happen anywhere and to anyone. Released in 2002, the film still looks and feels
fresh, and reveals more of its complex characterisation and story development after
repeated viewings – if you can stomach watching it more than once. Not only is
it bloody, but extremely tense and suspenseful. And if the first film wasn’t horrific
enough, just watch the opening scene of its sequel “28 Weeks Later” to see what I mean.
Impact of the movie
still felt today: Let’s face it, the now completely revived, well-respected
and still-going-strong Zombie franchise owes everything to 28 Days Later. The slew
of films featuring the undead went into production overdrive in the mid 00’s,
with remakes of former zombie flicks, and the success of the “Resident Evil”
franchise only adding to that. But it was perhaps with televisions take on the formula
with “The Walking Dead” premiering in 2010,
that has cemented the Zombie Genre as one that is here to stay. Even though
every film or TV show depicts people running away from zombies, each telling
can go in its own direction; from small and independent, to big and Hollywood-ised,
as well as dramatically dark and cleverly comedic, there is a Zombie offering
out there for every taste. But if you want to work your way through them the right
way, then check out 28 Days Later, and watch how it’s style, confidence and originality
paved the way for what we know today.
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