28 Days Later | Movie Review

It all begins with a lab monkey biting a woman, an animal activist follower who intended to free guinea pig animals: from that moment on, carnage of biblical proportions ensues and a strange virus spreads like wildfire.
After 28 days, Jimmy awakens from a coma resulting from a traffic accident. The hospital where he is admitted is deserted and in complete disarray. London is also empty: no one circulates on the streets, no cars, no buses, not even a barking dog. The city seems dead.... It seems...
Jimmy will discover that the terrible virus has infected almost all Londoners, making them extremely aggressive and eager to kill other human beings. The infection is spread through contact with contaminated blood or saliva, through scratching or biting.
His escape for survival will continue in the company of occasional survivors, but the situation does not seem to improve in the other English cities--until they hear a radio message urging them to get to a military garrison in Manchester, where it seems the antidote to the virus may be hidden. But the reality seems quite different from what is described....

Danny Boyle is the director of the beautiful "Trainspotting"; this time he chose a rather sensitive subject matter, where recognized masters such as Romero have laid down the law. He drew more than one reference from "Zombie" and "Day of the Living Dead": the shopping in the department store, the refueling at the gas pump with its encounter with the zombie-child, the military led by a mad major, the zombie prisoner used for study. The very structure of the subject matter (madness as a result of a virus) is reminiscent of "The City Will Be Destroyed at Dawn." These are all homages, intentional or not, to the great American director, and perhaps because of this, the film suffers from a certain impersonality, although the direction is punctilious and the effects, while not overdone, far from being to be despised.

All in all, a very enjoyable film, quite polished, intensely paced, and starring actors worth mentioning. But not original.
Can one speak of originality when it comes to the living dead? To fans the judgment.

Review by Maxena