Review #165: 28 Days Later (2002)

This review was originally written in 2021, and reposted as part of the Bucket List Challenge in 2022. There may or may not be small differences between the two reviews.

Gabe's 100 Bucket List Horror Films Review #20: 28 Days Later (2002)

This is another movie I watched and reviewed last year, so, again, fair warning.

I'm kind of shocked I went this long before seeing this film; I remember it being really popular among my friends when it first came out, and looking back I wonder if it had something to do with this being one of the first feature films shot on video (and all of my friends were geeks in the video program at our school). Who knows.

Speaking of which, I'll get the bad out of the way first: this movie looks and sounds bad. It surely wasn't a budget issue (this movie obviously had a HUGE budget, considering how much of it takes place in completely empty metropolitan London and all of the intense special effects and whatnot), so I'm inclined to think the director was going for a specific look, but the audio sounds poorly mixed during most of the movie and the low-quality video is also cut and edited in such a way that it looks cheap, and many action sequences were hard to follow because I could barely tell who was doing what due to the overall crummy look of the film. Also, a couple of the performances (particularly the character of Hannah) are.... really poorly-acted. If it weren't for all of the obvious markers of a high budget (according to the IMDB trivia, the scene of the exploding petrol station cost £250,000 on its own) I could easily be convinced this was a shoestring-budget movie, possibly even a college student project or something. If that was the look the director was going for, then I have to question the director's taste!

Now that that's aside, I'll make it clear: this was a FANTASTIC film. Not only was it a fresh take on zombies (to my knowledge it was one of the films that popularized the "fast zombie" trope, and boy, these zombies MOVE), it really knew when to use them and when to not. There's no giant hordes of zombies, there's a small number that only show up when the story really needs them. And speaking of which, can I just say how SUPERB the pacing of this movie is? Every time I started to feel like, "Alright, I get it, this story needs to move on" the next act would already be starting. It never got stale, it rises and falls in perfect rhythm, and there's always another great twist hiding around the corner, waiting for the moment you start to feel comfortable. I liked the characters, I was happy when they were happy, I was sad when they were sad, and it was always a gut punch when something bad happened to them. (The scene where the drop of blood falls into Frank's eye made my jaw drop, because I was enjoying their peaceful stint so much- but of course, the story had to move on.) The characters always felt like they were doing what real people would do (even the bad characters), and I was rooting for them until the end.

All in all this was a solid film, and I'm glad I got to watch it again!

Overall Rating: 8/10 Repurposed Red Dresses

Hot Tip for Anyone Who Gets a Flat Tire in a Zombie Apocalypse: Just drive with the flat. Seriously. Don't get out of your car and try to change the tire while zombies are running at you, just drive on the flat. It'll cause damage to the wheel and you won't go very fast, but it's better than sitting there and getting eaten by zombies. Also applies if a serial killer is after you. Seriously, your life is more important than damage to your wheel!