Intermission: '28 Days Later' brings well-done horror to screen

Jim Wunderle is a Springfield free-lance writer and musician.

The zombie or "last man" film is a well-established sub-set of the horror genre. Director Danny Boyle, no stranger to presenting images on this screen that are quite unnerving, has added his vision to the ever growing list of films of the type. And quite a vision it is, too.

He borrows from the classics George Romero's "Night of the Living Dead" and "Dawn of the Dead," "The Omega Man" and "The Last Man on Earth" but Boyle throws in enough new twists to keep the scenario fresh and utilizes a unique shooting style,

In "28 Days Later," the zombies aren't the usual slow-moving, semi-lethargic creeps. These creatures move at super speed. If they bite you, or trade bodily fluids with you at all, you've got about 20 seconds until you've joined their club. The digital video format that Boyle and cinematographer Anthony Dod Mantle employ lends itself to frantic, jarring visuals, and the art direction is sufficiently dark to keeps things edgy. Sometimes its what you can't see that really scares you.

The film opens as a group of animal-rights activists break into a science lab to free the chimps that are used for unspeakable experiments. The scenes here action in the movie intercut with various unsettling acts of violence on the TV monitors the chimps are viewing is head-spinning and sets up the mood of the film. When a scientist at the lab implores the activists not to let the chimps loose, we learn why. They've been infected with pure rage. Oops! Too late! Raging chimps on the loose.

The film then cuts to an exterior shot of London, 28 days later. It's an eerie shot as there is not a soul in the frame. No traffic or trains, just lonely papers blowing in the wind.

In a nearby hospital there is something stirring, though. A bicycle messenger, who has been in a coma, suddenly awakes to find himself alone. Jim is still in a daze and isn't completely sure if he's actually awake.

He wanders onto the street and finds the same thing: no people, no electricity, nothing. Nothing until he stumbles into a church and is attacked by the fastest, most blood-spewing zombies anyone has ever seen. Miraculously he doesn't get devoured. He meets two other survivors, Selena and Mark, who fill Jim in on what's been happening for the past month.

There are some survivors, but for the most part the United Kingdom has been entirely wiped out by the rage virus. Before the broadcast media went dead, it was reported that the virus had spread across the Atlantic, as well. The presumption is that it's the end of the world.

The trio begins wandering London and eventually finds Frank and his daughter Hannah barricaded in an apartment building. Frank has a radio powered by a crank generator, and they've been hearing a broadcast from Manchester saying an army unit has a survivor center there. The group decides to take the chance, and they head off to find out if the recorded broadcast is still pertinent.

The "fun" begins as they encounter things much worse than the "... lions and tigers and bears, oh my!" from "The Wizard of Oz." It's also inevitable that some in the group will have to die; that's how these stories go.

Upon reaching the location mentioned in the broadcast, they indeed find a group of soldiers who have set up quarters on an old estate. Led by Maj. Henry West, there is something sinister about this outfit. Sure, they have to be half crazy from fighting zombies for a month, but there's something deeper and darker afoot. When we learn what it is, "28 Days Later" takes on yet another aspect.

In the end, Boyle and screenwriter Alex Garland opt for a fairly standard finale but the road there is a wild one.

Besides the jolting action of the zombie scenes, Garland has managed to devise a script that gives a lot of depth to its main characters. As in all classic horror tales, the evil that lurks in the hearts of men, and the things that dwell in the imagination, are as scary as flesh eating, blood spewing or zombie hacking.

"28 Days Later" isn't the scariest movie I've ever seen, but it's the scariest I've seen in a long, long time.