Imagine waking up to a nation where everyone else has been infected by a rage virus. You too?
It’s all reminded me of Danny Boyle’s 2002 post-apocalyptic thriller 28 Days Later... Cillian Murphy plays a guy who awakens from a coma and learns that almost everyone on the island of Britain has become infected by a rage virus that drives them to kill the uninfected. He finds a hidden band of the uninfected (Naomie Harris of Moonlight, Our Kinf of Traitor and Skyfall and Brendan Gleeson of In Bruges and The Guard) who decide to risk a dash through zombie territory to a reported safe haven to the north.
These zombies don’t shamble – they are amped up on adrenaline and they can outrun you. Accordingly, they are way more terrifying that a regular shambling zombie.
Technically, the “zombies”are not zombies (reanimated dead people), but are live people who are infected with the rage virus. However, they fulfill the role of zombies in the plot, and Boyle has acknowledged that scenes in 28 Days Later… reference scenes in the George A. Romero Dawn of the Dead series. 28 Days Later… is consequently on various zombie movie lists. As in the rest of the genre, the zombies are trying to hunt down the people, a person who is bitten will become a zombie, and, to survive, the heroes need to massacre hordes of zombies.
Director Danny Boyle (Trainspotting, Slumdog Millionaire, 127 Hours) is known for his visually arresting movies, and here he creates a spectacular post-apocalyptic Britain – menacingly dark and deserted except for the lethally crazed.
It’s on my list of Zombie Movies for People Who Don’t Like Zombie Movies. You can rent 28 Days Later… on DVD from Netflix or stream it from Amazon Instant, iTunes, Vudu, YouTube, Google Play and a variety of other sources.
