Tonight i picked up and watched 28 Days Later on DVD.
I saw this movie last summer and BBQ wrote a great review of it
The film has been out on DVD for some time in the UK but the US film company thought it would be good to have the release date as close to Halloween as possible.
My God. This film is still as disturbing and tense as ever. It is a horror movie , a zombie movie, a journey movie and some social commentary. I am going to have to say that it is the scariest movie I know.
The story is about a massive viral plague that wipes out most of the United Kingdom and turns the infected into hate filled psychotic blood spewing "zombies". They are not actually dead but these are among the most visually disturbing zombies on film. There is a lot of dark social commentary that is very slight but wraps you in this apocalyptic world. Peter did not approve of how the military forces acted in the film. The director wanted it to be like Apocalypse Now but it ended up very brutal.
This movie was being made at the same time as the Foot and Mouth outbreaks in the UK and it was made before 9/11, the Anthrax Letters and SARS.
Mankind physiologically needs an apocalypses and since the end of the Cold War the chances of the human race being wiped out by thermonuclear warfare is not what it used to be. But the possibility of new and more deadly massively infectious diseases is a very real danger facing the world. The virus is taking the mental place that the atomic bomb.
It was made on a thrifty budget by the same director who made Trainspotting. He was able to get off a lot of shots that people assumed were computer effects but they were actually created in camera. It is a single DVD with multiple languages and a director's commentary tracks. There is also some deleted scenes and two alternative endings.
I dare some one who has not seen this movie to watch it alone with the lights off uninterrupted. Tis the season to pee your pants with a good scary movie and this is just the one to make your bladder give out.
And no it has nothing to do with the Sandra Bullock flick 28 Days.
i saw this last night...david put it on right before we went to sleep...needless to say i didn't fall asleep right away :P had my tummy in a tense little knot all night...i honestly expected to have nightmares, but i was fortunate enough not to...good, but fucked up movie...perfect for halloween ;)
(p.s. i told hubby while watching this that i thought it would be nice if there weren't so many ppl in this world...i liked how desolate everything looked...he thinks i'm nuts, but i think this movie gave me more of a desire to live in a place like alaska that isn't overrun w/ppl (yet)...heh)
I didn't find this movie that scary. It was a good attempt by Mr. Boyle, who I'm a huge fan of, but it falls flat on its face halfway through. Probably his weakest work.
And what's the dark social commentary? If anything the zombie violence and "disaster survivor" themes are parodies. The instantaneous and pat happy ending is completely silly and unbelievable. I wouldn't mind seeing the alternate endings included on the disc - I never stayed behind to see them in the theatre.
The social commentary was how money was worthless after the plague, they lived of junk food, the massive panic at the airports, and the actions of the military towards the women in the movie.
There are two more endings to the movie and they are much more depressing. But the ending in the movie was always in the script.
This is a very good horror film. I really enjoyed it so much. I'll have to watch the DVD with the alternative ending.
This has everything a guy needs in a movie.
Guns, Voilence, monkeys, and compliantery boobs.
Naked bloody killer zombie boobs do not really count. But this movie did have multiple male frontal nudity. Jim starts out buck naked and he spends the last part of the flick shirtless.
Just saw this at the movies here the other day. I didnt think it was scary, and Im not saying that to act all brave or anything, it just didnt strike me as scary.
Perhaps it has something to do with me living on a worthless island in the south pacific where almost nothing is a threat to us because nothing would bother wiping us out.
But anyway, the ending that made the final cut, I felt it was rushed and disjointed. The scenes in it just didnt flow. Then the ending after the credits, it seemed to flow so much better. And ofcourse, left it open for a sequel ;)
To me, the social commentary aspect was similar to that of Battle Royale; that in a desperate situation, civilization goes out the window. Chemists turn into merciless survivalists, soldiers turn into murderous rapists and bicycle messengers gouge out people's eyes with their thumbs. Suspicion is followed by immediate and violent execution. It's like Mark says toward the beginning, when describing the loss of his family: "You couldn't tell who was infected and who wasn't. They looked exactly the same."
I hated this movie so much. I saw it at the drive in and atually left after like 20 minutes. I'm not a horror movie girl anyway. I laugh the whole way through them.
I love post-apocalypse tales, so this one scored high on my list. It shares the top spot in my heart with "Night of the Living Dead."