28 Days Later

Just as it seems the horror genre has reached a moribund level that it may never recover from (remaking classics as crap, placing once frightening characters against each other in a parody of past scares, creating an incredible amount of uninspired drivel), an interesting, comparatively low-budget British "horror" movie shows there's still some gore left in the putrefying corpse. Trainspotting director Danny Boyle's 28 Days Later offers up a fresh take on the post-apocalyptic survivor/zombie scenario (although, technically, his infected aren't zombies), where 28 days after a "rage" virus is accidentally unleashed, wiping out most of England by turning people into infuriated monstrosities, a formerly comatose bike courier named Jim and a few other survivors he discovers attempt to find sanctuary in this barren land of the damned. 28 Days Later works because while it is a horror/sci-fi movie in spirit, it uses horror sparingly, instead focusing on the interplay between the survivors, intercut with stark, brutal bits of violence/horror and the Lord of the Flies-like breakdown in morality that accompanies any end of world scenario. However, the commentary by an enthusiastic Boyle and a self-deprecating Alex Garland (the writer) doesn't shed light on the reasons why as the audience and Jim are introduced to the survivors they all wear heavy homemade gear to protect themselves from infection (transmitted via the infected's blood) but abandon these precautions as the movie moves forward. Although Boyle and Garland do talk about establishing rules then ignoring them, the homage moments to George A. Romero and how they achieved their shots of a deserted London. There is also discussion on the film's ending and the three alternative endings, where they defend their "happy" ending against the downer ending. But perhaps most terrifying is the "Pure Rage" making of featurette, which makes it seem that not only are we on the verge of some kind of catastrophic outbreak, but it might be closer than we think. Plus: deleted scenes, storyboards, stills, more. (Fox Searchlight)