Hey folks, Harry here and after reading this review of 28 DAYS LATER from a test screening in Reading, England recently, I'm excited as hell at the prospects of seeing this baby. Danny Boyle makes a zombie film... How cool is that? Here ya go...
hey harry, thought I'd drop you a line as I was at a test screening of 28 Days Later in the English town of Reading last night, attended by the great man Danny Boyle himself, although he didn't say anything, he just hung around in the background while the focus group discussed the movie afterwards... ...the film was basically finished, apart from not having the closing credits....
The story is this:
A brief, hyper-intense (and almost visionary) opening sequence introduces us to the existence of a virus called Rage - we see the moment it escapes as animal rights protestors set free contaminated monkeys in a dark, hyper-kinetic and violent rush of imagery....... then the screen goes dark, and the words '28 days later' appear........we fade in to a man lying on a hspital bed, alone, and we see him gradually discover that not only is the hospital deserted, it seems that all of london is too (in some hauntingly shot sequences)....
...the rest of the movie finds him meeting up with survivors who have to constantly battle with 'the Infected' (yup - one bite, instant zombie!!), and follows them as they travel north after hearing a radio broadcast from a group of soldier-survivors who have created a safe zone many days travel away......
The main characters are Jim, the man who wakes up 28 days later, Selena, a toughened survivor with a bad 80s haircut, Frank, another survivor holed up in a towerblock, and Hannah, his young daughter.......
Overall, it's a combination of dark, Alien-style horror movie, kick-ass zombie movie, love story and (unfortunately in my opinion) comedy. There's a lot of EXTREME action, and Danny Boyle handles these scenes with great confidence and subtlety and flair, proving that he can well and truly play with the Hollywood boys - in fact, this movie sees him really moving forward as a director, using digital cameras, giving the movie a very different look from anything else out there right now. If only he'd directed Alien Resurrection..... It's exciting, visceral, very original (even experimental) in its direction, cinematography, editing etc, and even in the music (it uses Brian Eno's 'Ascent' a couple of times to haunting effect) - where it falls down is Alex Garland's script, which doesn't make the most of its good ideas and falls into jaunty, stock 'Britflick' characterisations too often, and includes some some badly misjudged scenes. Some of the actors are miscast, and seem to be in different movies from each other, although mention must be made of Christopher Eccleston who, as the leader of the group of soldiers who have created the safe zone, turns in a performance of typical intensity and brilliance.
Did I mention Danny Boyle's a great director? I did? Well maybe I should tell you again - his level of direction lifted this film way above what you would expect from the script. It's exciting seeing a director breaking new ground with such verve.......Harry, you got excited about the thought of Danny Boyle directing a low-budget zombie flick...well get ready to be excited when you see it, coz it's much better than that... He did some low budget digital films for the BBC earlier in the year, which were unique and personal and original and outstanding, and quiet and emotional too - he brings all this to the mix.
The opinion in the focus group discussion was almost unanimous - very original, very entertaining, definitely to be recommended - the only point of conflict came in discussing the end, which I won't reveal, but it's kind of cute, kind of happy and 'nice'. Wrong. Most people there wanted a dark, unresolved ending, although a couple of dissenters argued that it needed to end nicely. Personally I wanted the darker version, (although if the cute stuff was taken out I wouldn't be averse to being shown the possiblity of hope and transcendence...) and this was made very clear by the majority of the group, so hopefully Danny and co will consider changing it! It's due to come out after the summer, so you never know....
Darrin Stephens
