FILM: Zombies go mondo in SW1
28 Days Later
Cinema is in ‘recycle mode’ of late: your local multiplex is guaranteed to be full of re-makes, re-re-makes, new ‘interpretations’ and re-hashes of existing films or Seventies cop shows. This is not a new phenomenon. For example, do you prefer Charles Laughton’s 1935 Captain Bligh or Trevor Howard’s 1962 incarnation? The trend is now so common that a film based on a wholly original idea is a rarity.
The latest offering from Danny Boyle (Trainspotting, The Beach) is not, alas, an original idea. The concept of 28 Days Later is taken wholesale from Charlton Heston classic The Omega Man. The lead character — Jim — awakes from a coma twenty-eight days after animal rights activists have inadvertently unleashed a genetically modified plague on the country. The disease — taking only twenty seconds from infection to full-blown symptoms — has led to the death of most of Britain’s population, and those victims that remain, the Infected, are reduced to little more than zombies with a psychotic lust to kill or infect any survivors they come across. After wandering the deserted streets of London, Jim narrowly survives his first encounter with the Infected, and heads North with his saviours (other survivors) to find a group of soldiers who claim to have found the solution to the plague.
Shot using digital camera, rather than the usual 35mm film, there is a grainy, almost Dogme-like feel to the whole movie. This is used to great effect particularly when Jim is wandering the empty streets of London; it greatly adds to the sense of bewilderment at the situation he has woken up in. This method of filming has enabled Boyle to use digital effects that would have otherwise been prohibited by cost; for example, the digital removal of everyone but Jim from London’s streets, and a scene where the whole Manchester skyline is ablaze. The film is worth seeing for these shots of the cities alone, particularly the London scenes. There is something chilling to the core about seeing those sites so familiar to all of us — Westminster Bridge, Piccadilly Circus, Pall Mall — so empty and devoid of all human life.
The cinematic rough edges make a profound impact on the film; the lack of usual Hollywood glossiness makes everything seem so much more real than one would expect in what is essentially a zombie movie. This is compounded by the short-term immediacy of the action, not only in the knowledge that such desolation has taken only twenty-eight days from start to finish to achieve, but also references to Tony Blair and The Simpsons remind us that the film is set in the very near future.
Boyle also makes use of speeded-up motion shots as well as some interesting camera angles and movements both to shock and also to increase the pure visual impact of the film. This choppy camera-work makes a refreshing change from the slick Hollywood-style bullet-time action sequences that are all too common in movies like this, and the unusual cinematography also adds to the Britishness of the film.
The lack of a Hollywood-style budget does occasionally show up in a negative light, however. Some scenes occasionally look a little amateurish, and although Boyle has gone for a ‘less is more’ approach to attacks by The Infected, the use of long-distance shots, wherever groups of more than two or so zombies at once are called for, begins to grate after a time.
As well as having a uniquely British director, the script is also British-made. Alex Garland (of The Beach fame), turns his hand to scripting duties here, and does a decent, steady job of it, too. The plot is a little formulaic, but the piecemeal reconstruction through the eyes of the survivors of what has happened since infection broke out conveys the horror of the situation in a genuinely shocking way. The script is occasionally a little predictable, particularly at the denouement, but Garland sticks to his task to deliver frights from premise to conclusion. Although the dialogue all told is rather average, the plot moves along at an acceptable pace and you will have seen a lot worse in films this year.
The largely unknown cast, too, make a thoroughly workman-like job of matters. There will be no Oscar nominations here, but Cillian Murphy as Jim does an excellent job of conveying both bewilderment and horror at his predicament as well as giving good action scene in the film’s explosive final third. Naomie Harris is entirely decent as Jim’s cold-hearted, emotionally-numb rescuer. Christopher Ecclestone, as an Army major leading his band of troops, is clearly aiming at understatement in keeping with the general tone of the film. He merely achieves the effect of seeming to be simply going through the motions, however, and unusually for such an accomplished actor, he is the worst thing about the film.
Although the chilling shots of an empty London are the best thing about the film, a word must be said about the soundtrack. The desolation of the London scenes in particular is heightened by an outstanding accompaniment by arty Canadian post-rock outfit Godspeed! You Black Emperor. Boyle uses a diverting blend of songs from Brian Eno’s An Ending (Ascent) to choral music: Abide With Me, although rather hackneyed, is used to heartbreaking effect as Jim searches for his family.
Overall, the various strands of the movie are blended together with far more skill and to greater effect than you would expect in a film like this. Furthermore, the film is far more thought-provoking than it has any right to be, calling to mind questions of society and Man’s survival outside society’s structure. Danny Boyle seems to agree with Thomas Hobbes: life in the state of nature is nasty, brutish and short, and Boyle’s presentation of this concept is chilling.
Unusually for a sci-fi/horror film, the landscape presented to the viewer is every bit as scary as the zombie attacks themselves. Indeed, the concept of a deserted land with empty cities ablaze is so disturbing as to surpass the shock-value of the zombie attacks we have all seen so many times in films before. The general premise of 28 Days Later may be a recycled one, but outstanding cinematography, a thoroughly competent script and cast, and a well-chosen soundtrack, as well as some genuinely spine-tingling scenes, mean that it is an idea that has rarely before been delivered with such chilling effect.
Andy Fox, November 12, 2002 02:09 PM