28 Days Later, directed by Danny Boyle and written by Alex Garland, is a vivid horror film in the mode of George Romero (the Living Dead trilogy, of course, but also his excellent, although lesser-known The Crazies), but updated for the new century, in terms of its cinematography (lots of shock cuts in the violent sequences) and overall attidutes (a bit more sentimental than Romero, but also more, how do I say this, pragmatic). A plague turns nearly all of England into zombie-like enraged maniacs, bent on spreading their disease by biting others. A small group of uninfected people try, against all odds, to stay alive. Horror is both the most visceral and the most intellectual of film genres, and 28 Days Later succeeds on both counts. The film works largely because of its pacing: Boyle understands the rhythms of dread, anticipation, and surprise, and he captures those scary moments when nothing is happening, but for that very reason it is impossible to feel safe, because something horrible might happen at any moment, and especially at those moments when you finally do relax, and don’t expect trouble. There’s also the visual poetry of London, and the British countryside, strangely devoid of people, though filled with their garbage and other detritus; it’s more disturbing in its way than scenes of outright ruin (destroyed buildings, etc) would have been. Though the film does have one eerie, almost apocalyptic moment, when our fleeing protagonists see Manchester burning in the distance. In terms of intellectual content, the film rethinks our post-AIDS ideas/dreads/paranoia about contagion, and also uses the aftermath of catastrophe scenario to reflect on our contemporary remakings of gender. (It’s hard to be more specific without giving things away, but let’s just say the film both gives a positive account of a new sensitive heterosexual masculinity, and reflects quite gruesomely on the laddie backlash that has been strong in both the UK and the US in recent years). All in all, I cannot say that this is a ground-breaking horror film, but it is a memorable and affecting one.
28 Days Later
28 Days Later, directed by Danny Boyle and written by Alex Garland, is a vivid horror film in the mode of George Romero (the Living Dead trilogy, of course, but also his excellent, although lesser-known The Crazies), but updated for the new century, in terms of its cinematography (lots of shock cuts in the violent sequences) and overall attidutes (a bit more sentimental than Romero, but also more, how do I say this, pragmatic). A plague turns nearly all of England into zombie-like enraged maniacs, bent on spreading their disease by biting others. A small group of uninfected people try, against all odds, to stay alive. Horror is both the most visceral and the most intellectual of film genres, and 28 Days Later succeeds on both counts. The film works largely because of its pacing: Boyle understands the rhythms of dread, anticipation, and surprise, and he captures those scary moments when nothing is happening, but for that very reason it is impossible to feel safe, because something horrible might happen at any moment, and especially at those moments when you finally do relax, and don’t expect trouble. There’s also the visual poetry of London, and the British countryside, strangely devoid of people, though filled with their garbage and other detritus; it’s more disturbing in its way than scenes of outright ruin (destroyed buildings, etc) would have been. Though the film does have one eerie, almost apocalyptic moment, when our fleeing protagonists see Manchester burning in the distance. In terms of intellectual content, the film rethinks our post-AIDS ideas/dreads/paranoia about contagion, and also uses the aftermath of catastrophe scenario to reflect on our contemporary remakings of gender. (It’s hard to be more specific without giving things away, but let’s just say the film both gives a positive account of a new sensitive heterosexual masculinity, and reflects quite gruesomely on the laddie backlash that has been strong in both the UK and the US in recent years). All in all, I cannot say that this is a ground-breaking horror film, but it is a memorable and affecting one.