It seems that almost each horror or science fiction film is being interpreted as an allegory of some particular realities; in addition, the supernatural characteristics described in such films are sometimes seen and described as symptoms of political and/or social diseases. For example, “zombie” horror movies tend to describe how paranoia and panic even among the beloved ones take over the common sense and traditional social norms. Current example of such movie is “28 Days Later” by Danny Boyle, in which he depicted post-apocalyptic world abandoned and destroyed by an epidemic that transforms every living organism into a cannibalistic killing machine. Boyle does not intend to describe them as “zombies”, as they are the victims of a virus that has been developed by the scientists. The main characteristic of the virus is that it stimulates the only emotion in animals and humans – anger. Moreover, even the code name of the virus speaks for itself, as the scientists, who have studied the virus among chimps in closed lab, are calling it “rage”.
That’s where the movie starts, as the chimps mentioned before are being freed by the animal rights activists.
First, it seems that the overall fault of the virus spreading lies on the scientists, who have invented it and conducted experiences on animals. However, it should also be noted that the animal rights activists are depicted too radical and too straightforward, as they never seemed to care about the reasons of the animals being caged in the lab. It also seems that they were never aware about the type of experiments that were conducted there. Thus, it makes us think that the animal rights activists in the movie are interested just in the act of freeing the animals out of their cages and they care less about the potential consequences of this. Second, for a scientific lab that is supposed to study dangerous viruses, it should be guarded much better than it was depicted in the movie. Such labs should be protected to extent that not only any activist was not able to enter there, but also every unauthorized person could not even know about the existence of such lab. In addition, chimps in the lab could have been tranquilized once they were not experimented, as they are dangerous and aggressive. Therefore, the introduction scene can be considered the weakest throughout the movie, as it provides only an emotional appeal to the viewers rather than logically and adequately constructed situation that led to an apocalyptical catastrophe.
28 days later, a young man (named Jim) wakes up from coma in local hospital. It is also unclear, why the infected did not kill him during these days; however, if they did, we would not have a protagonist in the movie. He gets out of a hospital, finding out that it had been abandoned long before he woke up. Furthermore, wandering through the devastated city streets, he figures out that not only the city, but also the overall country has been infected. The overall picture of devastation and abandonment of the city is being exaggerated by various panoramic views of Jim walking across the empty streets, picturing him as the only one, who is left alive. Due to these panoramic views we can also see that the virus did not affect the birds, as they seem flying above Jim without any potential possibility to attack him. Thus, it appears that the virus does not affect every living creature.
As Jim realizes that the world has become more dangerous than it has been, he tries to find some shelter and someone else alive. He finds out that the survivors have gathered in a local church; however, once he gets there, he is being attacked by the infected swarmed there. Certainly, this scene is intended to scary the audience for the first time; however, the scariness of the situation was reproduced poorly and appeared the same as it could have been in any other casual “zombie” horror.
Nevertheless, he is being saved from the infected by a couple of survivors that offer him shelter in a nearby supermarket. The only priority of the group is the survival; they hide from the infected, eat in the abandoned stores and supermarkets, sleep in empty buildings and fight the infected. They also worry about killing each other if any of them becomes infected. It is a problem that is being described in the majority of similar movies. It is a well-known fact that it is almost impossible for any sane person to kill another one, even in means of protection of his/her life. Killing the infected in such movies is being pictured as an act of mercy, as the group mates never want their former companion to become another zombie or “infected”. They always want him to die a human rather than to live like a contaminated zombie.
The movie also gives a bright example to the “loss of individuality” concept, as it does not matter, who an infected person has been previously. He or she becomes a monster in any case. The movie also seeks to correlate with social and political problems of contemporary world, as the infected can easily be the symbols of the pure violence that infected the nations and countries. Moreover, the contemporary chemical and biological catastrophes seem uncontrollable nowadays, just like the spreading of the virus in the movie. The movie also shows the empty world for such “survivors” that are not infected by the violence, as they see the results of the virus spreading everywhere.
Such emptiness of the world is also being exaggerated by the color design of the movie. Almost every scene in the movie lacks color, as it seems that each event in the movie has been layered by a blue/gray filter. However, there are some rare colorful scenes that show that there is still some hope left for this world. In addition, Jim also seems to be an expression of this hope for salvation, as even the lightning in the scenes with him is brighter and outlines him across the streets of the city.
Another theme that is being described and explained through the course of the movie is that there is no possibility to survive in such post-apocalyptic world alone. Selene, one of Jim’s saviors appears to be an independent woman that does not seem to have any people around her to survive; however, through the course of the movie she realizes how she was wrong. It makes us think that a person alone cannot survive against the world crowded with the violent and hazardous zombies. Moreover, the final scene with the remnants of the group being saved by a helicopter gives us another proof that anyone can be saved by another, if the first has enough time to wait for salvation.
28 days later cannot be considered as scary zombie horror, as it is more emotional and experiential for it. The panoramic views of the abandoned city in the beginning of the movie, which I consider to be the best scene throughout the movie, explains how does the apocalypse look like; moreover, for a lone survivor. The movie, despite its logical inconsistencies, provides a great emotional and experiential explanation of how zombie apocalypse feels like for a simple person that is not a hero-savior, not a soldier, not a scientist and has nothing special. However, he is one of the only one to survive this infection.
