The Reel Critic

Author: Matthew Clark

Jim (Cillian Murphy) wakes up. There are IVs and drips and tubes coming from every pore. Curious, he rises, unlocks the door and peers down the hallway. Tables are askew, chairs over-turned, gurneys flipped and vending machines smashed. Despite the chaos, it is utterly quiet. No friendly chatter, no coughs, no ventilation systems whirring. "28 Days Later," directed by Danny Boyle ("Trainspotting"), puts us there with Jim, walks us through the hospital and onto a street with dramatically overturned cars and old trash twisting across the road like tumbleweed. Even Big Ben has stopped ticking.

"Rage," a deadly, vampire-ish virus, has infected the planet. Glimpses of the experimental virus show it instantly infecting the victim with an unquenchable bloodthirst. Headlines read, "EVACUATION!" Bodies of those who didn't escape are deposited in alleys. An infected priest stumbles and gargles, clawing towards Jim. Graffiti on the church wall proclaims, "THE END IS EXTREMELY F-KING NIGH." It feels like it is here already. Celina (Naomi Harris), a father and daughter are Jim's eventual companions. They tune into a radio signal and dodge red eyed, epileptic zombies they make their way towards the signal anticipating salvation.

You can't help feeling small, realizing how helpless we really are without our running water, credit cards, cell phones and government - "There's always government!" Jim insists. A gas station provides an opportunity to siphon fuel and offers the last cheeseburger for 60 miles. Except for the French fries, nothing wholesome is left. Customers lie dead on the floor. Jim is charged by a shirtless, blood-dripping boy and we wonder briefly as he puts a boot on the child's neck and we look into his infected eyes, when do we lose our humanity? When is our own survival more important than the survival of our companions? To save herself, Celina kills her buddy as soon as he is bitten. As Jim gauges out an army general's eyes, we wonder what makes us so different from those infected? They are still people killing people. Is there a difference between the "Rage" virus and the feeling in our belly when we are knocked down by an unexpected snowball?

The cinematography juxtaposes the beauty of English pastures and twittering birds with the horribly red gore of man's violent nature very well. However, I was exhausted by Boyle's insistence on showing man's ability to endure even the most traumatizing situations with humor and lightness. During an excursion to the supermarket, the four travelers smile at moldy fruit and run past empty cash registers, laughing like a bad Mobil SpeedPass commercial. Often times I wanted more vampires, more questions to be raised and fewer cheesy quips and scenarios.

Yet the horror of "28 Days Later" was refreshing. It was more than just the suspense and blood soaking of the predictable "I Know What You Did Last Summer." The horror was an all-encompassing fear - an awe at the insignificance of our own existence. The film reminds us that the world has turned for billions of years before the first human beings appeared and it will continue to do so after the last have vanished.