Did I mention, the tank’s a tank?

Name: 28 Days Later
Released: 2002
IMDB Rating: 7.6/10

Most people consider this to be a zombie film, when actually it’s not (well not traditionally anyway), as the outbreak is a virus, a virus which infects people with rage. They’re not dead, and a bite isn’t needed to transfer the virus, just having a cut/ would mean infection*. That aside, this is a fantastic “zombie” film, the highest (imdb) rated I’ve blogged about so far. With a fantastic script, good actors (Cillian Murphy and Brendan Gleeson to name just two) and being set in London, a familiar setting which I can relate to.

I love this film and it’s one I can watch over and over, and with it being fairly old … everyone should have seen it by now! So here’s a bit of trivia from IMDB I found interesting:
For the scenes in London, poilce would close the roads at 4am and filming would begin immediately. It would last for one hour, and at that time the police would reopen the roads. As well as having to deal with traffic, the producers also had to ask clubbers to find alternative routes home. In terms of the traffic, the producers correctly predicted that asking drivers to either wait for up to an hour or find another way might cause some considerable consternation. As such, they employed several extremely attractive young women (one of whom was Danny Boyle’s daughter) to make the necessary requests. This plan had the desired results, as the drivers responded quite amicably to the young girls.

If anyone knows what Danny Boyle’s daughter looks like, I’d be interesting in seeing a picture!

28 Days Later also has one of my most favourite pieces of music for a film John Murphy – In the House In a Heartbeat

Now watch the trailer, then go and get the film and watch it!

Trailer:

* From the IMDB trivia page
Another aspect of rendering the zombie movie more contemporary was the idea that the virus didn’t necessarily affect people physically (it doesn’t kill them as in traditional zombie movies), but psychologically. Both Alex Garland and Danny Boyle felt that the idea that the virus renders people zombie-like due to uncontrollable rage was a good metaphor for the contemporary phenomenon of social rage (such as road rage, air rage, hospital rage etc). They liked the idea that the virus simply amplifies something already in each and every man and woman, rather than turning them into something entirely Other, as is the traditional route in zombie movies.