DeadTime (2012)

By

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2014-12-20

Twitter Plot Summary: A Birmingham band head into the studio to record their new album, only to find a killer on the loose.

Oh dear. Those are perhaps the only words sufficient to describe low budget Brummie slasher horror movie DeadTime. Not only does it feature the esteemed acting talents of Leslie Grantham, Terry Christian (for a minute of screen time apiece) but also Joe Egan, a man whose main claim to fame is appearing in the two Guy Ritchie Sherlock Holmes films, and to a much lesser extent a lot of other low budget fodder, as Big Joe or a similarly named big character.

A Birmingham band converge on a grotty little studio in the West Midlands in order to record their latest album. Unfortunately for them they are let down by a lack of creativity, their management who are pushing for a return to form, and the masked killer who is stalking the corridors and bumping people off at regular intervals. We’ve seen this sort of thing before in Kill Keith, but that at least had the benefit of knowing how bad it was. DeadTime is just awful, no two ways about it.

The Birmingham accent isn’t one that naturally lends itself to a cinematic setting, and there’s barely a character here who doesn’t represent the city by their thick Birmingham accents and their backwards attitudes. It’s a surprise that the city wasn’t in uproar about how they are represented, but then most of them have probably never heard of the film and subsequently have nothing to be angry about. In essence, a bunch of unlikeable characters are thrown together and tasked with surviving to the end credits. The thing is, because they are all so horribly unpleasant you end up wishing that they would all meet a horrible end – preferably within the first 15 minutes to save us sitting through the rest of the film.

"Tell them I'll only do it if I get five grand for every minute of screen time... Yes, I am happy to only do one minute. For five grand." — “Tell them I’ll only do it if I get five grand for every minute of screen time… Yes, I am happy to only do one minute. For five grand.”

An incredibly brief cameo from Judas Priest’s Ian Hill – because he’s from Birmingham, bab – sets the tone from the off – essentially it means bad acting and a bad use of location. It’s your typical low budget slasher flick, a masked man takes inspiration from Jason Voorhees circa Friday The 13th Part 2, not just through him killing people one by one, but because he chooses to wear a fetching burlap sack in order to hide his real identity. The deaths are bountiful and there is gratuitous female nudity just because genre convention dictates it.

Ordinarily an inventive mix of character deaths would be enough to save even the most ridiculous of slasher films, but that’s not the case here. Tarnished by bad CGI, poor camerawork and some less than credible acting, it’s a film that lives or dies on having at least one of those separate elements be competently presented, instead it fails on each point and does so with gusto. Even a black magic plot that comes into play in the final act feels misjudged and at odds with the preceding 60 minutes. Is there a point to be made here about the state of the music industry? As it happens, no. And that’s yet another black mark in the Big Book of Cliches.

Furthermore you can probably guess who the killer is within the first five minutes, it doesn’t come as a shock, although their outrageously over the top performance probably does. Save this one for a bad movie night if you have to, it has no other redeeming qualities worthy of your time. There aren’t even any awkward shots of Leslie Grantham sucking his finger provocatively. What a waste.

Score: 1/5

Black Sea (2014)

By

Simon Prior

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2014-12-18

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"So how do you fly this thing again?" — “So how do you fly this thing again?”

Twitter Plot Summary: A group of disillusioned and out of work sailors go in search of lost Nazi gold on a submarine in the Black Sea.

It’s been quite a while since the last decent submarine movie. U-571 failed to hit the mark and it’s possibly as far back as Crimson Tide that the genre last had a certified hit on its hands. Black Sea goes back to all of those standard submarine tropes that are a great setting for drama. A group of men trapped together in a tin coffin, down in the depths of the ocean where tempers can fray in an instant

The principle idea behind Black Sea is an intriguing one. A group of men from a naval background, finding themselves out of work and put upon by “The Man”, unite to seek out a mythical Nazi submarine lost in the Black Sea with a huge amount of gold bullion stored in its hold. The group are led by Jude Law’s Captain Robinson, a man who has recently been laid off from his job after 11 years. He leads a crew of handpicked sailors, all at the bottom of the barrel like him, and made up from an even mixture of British and Russian sailors. Instantly, you can tell there’s going to be a bit of tension there already.

And to its credit, Black Sea does feature an impressive amount of dramatic tension, filled with twists, turns and character developments so you’re never quite sure who, besides the young naive Scouser Liam (Karl Davies), you should be rooting for. The ever reliable Michael Smiley, the potentially insane Ben Mendelsohn and Scoot McNairy holding up the English speaking side of the journey, whilst solid character acting from the likes of Grigoriy Dobrygin, Sergey Puskepalis and Sergey Kolesnikov bolster the Russian ranks, even if they don’t have much to do besides talk in Russian and gesture at the English speaking cast.

"Someone's after me Lucky Charms!" — “Someone’s after me Lucky Charms!”

It’s another example of the submarine almost being a character in itself, an old rust bucket that may just fall apart at any moment. Combine this with the subtext-laden name of the company who fired Robinson in the first place, Agoro, and all soon becomes clear. Agorophobia, the fear of open spaces or being in a situation you can’t escape from, perfectly describes this journey, both literally in the submarine and figuratively in their personal journeys. One way or another, they are all trapped.

Despite the enclosed setting there’s still plenty of room for some decent action beats. A walk on the sea bed is a tense endeavour, and the threat posed by the characters too each other always threatens to erupt into something more. Unfortunately Black Sea is let down in a few areas by never truly settling on its tone, moments of dark humour contrasting starkly with the bleak attitudes of the characters and a script that seems desperate to avoid pitching the characters as two dimensional obsessives yet ends up falling into that exact trap it was trying to avoid. The Russians, almost by necessity, are underdeveloped, and the English speaking crew barely fare any better. Still, the tense atmosphere makes up for this and while it won’t be challenging Das Boot for best submarine film, it’s a solid thriller regardless.

Score: 3.5/5

World of the Dead: The Zombie Diaries 2 (2011)

By

Simon Prior

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2014-12-17

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Surely there's a significant risk of disease in this situation... — Surely there’s a significant risk of disease in this situation…

Twitter Plot Summary: The world has gone to pot and it’s all the zombies’ fault. Thankfully somebody was on hand to film it all.

The good news is that The Zombie Diaries 2, with its odd prefix-not-suffix of World of the Dead, is a better film than the original. That film suffered because it used an anthology format and chose to follow various groups of mostly boring characters as the zombie apocalypse unfolded in the United Kingdom.

The opening sequence here features a family being attacked in their home by what appears to be a single zombie, and not only demonstrates how stupid people are in zombie films (here’s a suggestion – try closing the door) but also implies that we’re back in exactly the same, awkward found footage territory that made the original such a hard sell. That found footage method is still in use here, but the shift of focus to a group of soldiers trying to make their way to the coast, where they will board a boat heading for mainland Europe, is a positive one, as is the increased number of on-screen zombies which prove to be a constant threat. Their numbers are still quite low compared to the big American productions, but they make an impact and suggest that the survivor’s efforts are likely to be in vain.

Much like the first film, there is a heavy element of social commentary by highlighting just how nasty people can be when the world has ended, and all of the restrictions society places on us have been lifted. In this world men are apparently focused on killing and rape and not much else besides. It’s a nihilistic and bleak perspective on the world, not helped by the lack of characterisation given to its female characters. They might be able to fire weapons and get into their own fair share of scrapes, but ultimately the women are only here to act as objects of lust and, mostly, be rescued by the menfolk. Progressive writing this is sadly not.

The uniforms hadn't told her much, but the discovery of the dog tags meant only one thing - she was in the company of soldiers. — The uniforms hadn’t told her much, but the discovery of the dog tags meant only one thing – she was in the company of soldiers.

It’s still very much a low budget affair, which is fine, however given the fact the characters are relying on generators for their power it does lead to the suspension of disbelief being completely ignored. In certain circumstances the found footage format works, but when civilisation has ended you can’t help but think their time would be better served doing something more productive than pointing an energy-wasting camcorder at people whilst the undead swarm around you.

With that said, the occasional conceit for the cinema format is made so certain moments (but not many) are seen from somewhere other than the perspective of the guy holding the camera, and it’s these sequences that work best. It would have been better if the found footage concept had been dropped completely and the whole film had been shot in a traditional style, at least then it wouldn’t be necessary to sit through scene after scene of low lighting and spotlight views of the action. Once or twice, fair enough, but using it this frequently detracts from the story. It might be an improvement over the first film, but The Zombie Diaries 2 still lacks the edge to make it an essential zombie movie.

Score: 3/5

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_EsRb_2GleY

Tarzan (1999)

By

Simon Prior

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2014-12-16

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"What's wrong with my hairstyle?" — “What’s wrong with my hairstyle?”

Twitter Plot Summary: The Tarzan story gets the Disney treatment, complete with talking animals and added Brian Blessed.

Disney’s progress in the late 90s spun out from their earlier successes in The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin and The Lion King. Unfortunately for 1999’s Tarzan, some of the magic is missing and it doesn’t quite hit the same mark.

That’s not to say it’s bad – not in the slightest. It just happens to lack that certain Disney magic that made their late 80s and early 90s output all that more engaging. The constituent elements are all there – a fun adaptation of a classic text, a love story between Tarzan and Jane, a hunter named Clayton who is intent on taking some captured gorillas back to London with him, and a wide array of anthropomorphised jungle animals that have a little bit of sass and a touch of derring do about them.

In a break from the typical Disney pattern the soundtrack is provided by Phil Collins, and contrary to your opinion on his music he provides an interesting and heartfelt soundtrack that works well with the story being played out. It certainly makes it stand out from the norm, and is all the better for it. It wouldn’t be a Disney film without some solid voice acting, and Tarzan proves to be just as strong as the other Classics, with the now traditional casting of a number of big name actors in various roles. Here, we get the dulcet tones of Brian Blessed as Clayton, Minnie Driver as Jane, and Rosie O’Donnell as Tarzan’s best friend Terk. Whilst Tony Goldwyn is a decent Tarzan, it should come as no surprise to discover that his trademark yell is provided by Blessed.

Tarzan's notion of a gift for a first date was wildly out of touch with modern Victorian society. — Tarzan’s notion of a gift for a first date was wildly out of touch with modern Victorian society.

It is the story in fact that is the main letdown. There is little in the way of drama until the final third, and while the characters are all entertaining they remain a victim of the rushed narrative that doesn’t do nearly enough to do justice to the characters. It’s paper thin at several points and perhaps some of the choices for where to take the story could have been tweaked to make it more engaging. The relationship between Tarzan and his adopted parents is handled well, but otherwise there’s little else to recommend as far as the narrative is concerned.

This is a shame because the animation is superb, a mixture of traditional 2D and the newer 3D animation style that would soon come to dominate the animated industry. The character designs are good, however despite being set in the 19th century Tarzan, thanks to his funky hair style, has the air of having recently completed a stint as a member of a boy band. Mention must also be made of Tarzan’s method of traversing down trees, which owes more than its fair share of debt to Tony Hawks’ skateboarding antics than the old way of just swinging through the forest on conveniently placed vines. It both modernises the character yet keeps him well within the Victorian era in which he exists – a tricky balancing act to say the least. Tarzan feels like Disney getting stuck in a rut, barely refining their formula and not providing as engaging a tale as it perhaps ought to have been. However you look at it, it’s still better than the dead eyed stare of the 2014 animated Tarzan film.

Score: 3/5

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lfciC33t3M0

Django (1966)

By

Simon Prior

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2014-12-15

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Hey it's Clint Ea... oh, sorry. My bad. — Hey it’s Clint Ea… oh, sorry. My bad.

Twitter Plot Summary: Django, a coffin-dragging, self-centred chap, gets into a bit of a spat with Mexicans and the KKK. As you do.

Marking perhaps one of the better non-Leone, non-Eastwood spaghetti westerns from the era, Django sees Franco Nero as the titular character, dispensing justice as and when it is needed. He finds himself in a small, incredibly muddy town stuck between two rival groups – a huge number of Mexicans festooned with bullet belts on one side, and a gang of KKK enthusiasts, in this case choosing to walk around with some rather fashionable red masks and sashes – just in case you weren’t sure who they were – on the other. There will be twists, turns and intrigue before the 90 minutes are out, as the almost constant sound of the wind breezing through conjures an air of desolation and despair, and lots of people die in a hail of bullets and arguments.

Django is an instantly intriguing character, pulling a coffin behind him wherever he goes. This is kind of unfortunate for him because everywhere seems to be covered in thick mud – he must have the upper body strength of a professional weightlifter. The parallels between Django and Eastwood’s Man With No Name are obvious to anybody with half a brain. Nero, with his grizzled features and slow delivery is an Eastwood clone in all but name. Yet in spite of this blatant act of paying homage/ripping off, Django stands on its own two feet. Thematically there is a lot to discuss – Django makes a stand against racism, bigotry and violence even though he is a mostly selfish man, stopping to help the inhabitants of the town with the “extra help” he carries – although you can’t help but think that he only does so because, in the grand scheme of things, it will be better for him.

Worst game of "Spot The Woman" ever. — Worst game of “Spot The Woman” ever.

Despite its heavy censorship in the UK (it remained without a rating until 1993 when it was finally given an 18 rating), Django proves to be a relatively bloodless affair. People are cut down in huge numbers with barely a bloody mark upon them, but there’s always time for some nice, bloody moments when it comes to the close-ups on the named characters. It becomes easy to empathise with Django and his plight, an easy man to root for despite his aforementioned selfishness.

Crash zooms are the order of the day, director Sergio Corbucci using them primarily on leading lady Maria (Loredana Nusciak) as she stares wistfully or with concern into the middle distance. Suffice to say this is not a world in which women get the best representation, with Maria frequently being used as a pawn or a playing piece in a larger game rather than having the ability or the inclination to show the men folk how it should really be done.

Ignoring the terrible English language dub (as always, the original language version with subtitles is recommended), Django proves to be a thoroughly entertaining spaghetti western that, despite an occasional turn for the melodramatic, is on par with the works of Leone and Eastwood. Few can claim to have reached such lofty heights, but Django proves to be a worthy exception to the rule, if not for its story then for its solid depiction of violence in the old West.

Score: 4/5

Writing Projects

By

Simon Prior

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2014-12-14

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For the second half of this year I’ve found myself desperately trying to catch up on my film review blogs so I can make time for a couple of other writing projects. The thing is, the film blogging thing was only ever intended to be one string to my bow, the result of years of wanting to review every single film I’ve ever watched and store them all on a website which would be available to the whole world – if the world deemed me worthy, of course. In fairness 2014 has been an incredibly busy year and I’ve not written anywhere nearly as much as I would have liked, however for reasons that I won’t go into I’ve now got a bit more spare time on my hands and I find that I now have the opportunity to churn out hundreds or maybe even a couple of thousand words a day on top of the day job and my other hobbies and interests.

Last year I tried starting a novel for National Novel Writing Month, an annual competition of sorts that takes place every November. Your task is to try writing 50,000 words inside a month. Suffice to say, with time being as limited as it has been, last year I managed 3000 words. This year I started a new novel plan (because I didn’t have enough time to go back to the 2013 idea) and managed 4000 words before life once again got in the way. I didn’t manage 50,000 words before the end of November, not even close, but I do at least have a very genuine intention of finishing this novel and hopefully many more thereafter.

I find a lot of my ideas come from dreams. The first two novels I’m working on originally started as recurring dreams, and recently I’ve taken the basic premise of another three or four novels from several other dreams that my subconscious has dumped on me. I shouldn’t complain, even despite those dreams often manifesting in the room when I wake up – it’s safe to say that I have a very overactive imagination which has its good and bad points.

I’ve spent much of my adult life wanting to develop my creative talents, and whilst I have always enjoyed active filming days on sketches, films and so on, most of those efforts have been limited by resources and never live up to the images that are in my head. I decided quite recently that the best way for me to scratch that particular creative itch is to try making progress into the novel writing business – something which I’ve been giving serious thought to for many years. I’ll be continuing with the film blogs, don’t worry about that (and if you weren’t worrying, then carry on as you were). Now though, I find myself in the position where I have all of these ideas buzzing around and I need an outlet for them. Why not turn them into novels? So over the coming months – and provided I can keep the motivation up – this website will slowly evolve to include all of my writing in whatever form that takes. Much of it will be film blogs simply because I continue to watch a lot of films and it would be a waste to not carry it on for at least a few years until I have reviewed everything I’ve seen or wanted to see. Until then, I will be doing what I’ve been doing over this last week, finding a balance between watching films, writing about films, and planning novels. I’m genuinely looking forward to the possibilities that 2015 has to offer.

The Exterminator (1980)

By

Simon Prior

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2014-12-09

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Nice smoke effects. Shame about the helmet.

Twitter Plot Summary: A man seeks revenge on the gang who attacked his best friend, who fought with him in Vietnam.

Given that The Exterminator opens with an impressively violent sequence set in Vietnam, it’s surprising how little on-screen violence there proves to be in the rest of the film. Oh, you see quite a bit, sure, but other than a brief beheading sequence in this Vietnam section it’s rather tame by comparison to the video nasties of the era, let alone by modern standards. You’ll no doubt be completely thrown when the opening credits begin and a rather gentle theme song kicks in, contrasting starkly with the violence we’ve just witnessed. It’s almost as vast a tonal shift as the opening credits of Commando, although in that case the tonal shift occurred within the theme itself.

However if you give it some thought, the lighthearted theme track should act as an indication that the characters in ‘Nam have moved on from their life of violence and have settled in the big city with the hope of leading a normal life. This will of course only be a temporary thing, because after his best friend is assaulted by a gang of hoodlums, John Eastland (Robert Ginty) sets out on a revenge killing spree that sees him chasing down scum left right and centre.

He also realised far too late that the script possibly wasn't going to win him any awards. — He also realised far too late that the script possibly wasn’t going to win him any awards.

Now, on paper this might sound like a really entertaining film, and it is. In parts. For every brief moment of entertainment there are a dozen more that make little sense. The finale is an anti-climax, a slow burn that doesn’t feel like it’s bringing the story to a satisfactory conclusion. There are other narrative issues littered throughout as well – no explanation is given for how Ginty manages to track down the first gang member, instead we cross-fade to him having already found the guy and has him chained him up, ready to be tortured. This continues throughout the film and leaves the impression that either a lot of scenes in the script weren’t shot for budget reasons, were cut for release for being too violent, or were filmed but inexplicably left out of the edit. Whichever proves to be the case, it does not help the final product and ruins what could have otherwise been a hugely enjoyable revenge romp. That’s despite the very 80s hairstyles worn by everyone in the cast.

At the very least, The Exterminator has its gore effects going for it. Whether it’s people being lopped apart by crazed Vietcong soldiers or being strapped to a bed and then set on fire, there’s a lot of smartly presented violence taking place which will satisfy a good many people and goes a long way towards helping you ignore the leaps of logic throughout.

There’s probably some social commentary in play given that Ginty’s friend is a black man set upon by a gang of vicious white thugs, but as expected it’s not given enough time to be explored properly, and that proves to be the biggest flaw in The Exterminator, yet another case where a few tweaks could have made for a far better film.

Score: 2.5/5

The Frozen Dead (1967)

By

Simon Prior

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2014-12-06

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Twitter Plot Summary: A Nazi scientist plans to resurrect a number of frozen Nazi soldiers 20 years after WW2 ended. Hitler isn’t one of them.

She couldn't get over how bad her headache was. — She couldn’t get over how bad her headache was.

The Frozen Dead is a classic example of 60s B-Movie output. All the hallmarks of a dodgy 60s horror film – and one featuring frozen Nazis no less – are present.Put a few genre actors into a very limited setting, have them read the script with earnestness and not do very much else besides, and throw in a vaguely interesting premise that you soon realise is going nowhere. Then you release the film on an unsuspecting public and hope for the best. The answer is of course that nobody seems to take notice because of the aforementioned issues and the boredom that quickly sets in.

There are supposedly frozen soldiers seen at various points, yet the actors are not able to maintain their balance and subsequently ruin the “cryogenically frozen” effect. There’s also a bald, tall Nazi butler carved from the same stone as Lurch from The Addams Family, and a plot that sees a scientist plotting to resurrect a horde of frozen Nazis in order to bring the Third Reich back to power in the 1960s – and no, there isn’t even the possibility that Hitler or any other famous Nazi is among that number. More’s the pity. It’s absolute bunkum treated with an unfortunate amount of respect and seriousness. What could have been a fun idea is dragged through several tedious conversations and plays out very much like a rehash of the Frankenstein story, in particular Hammer’s own The Curse of Frankenstein. At least there we had Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee adding a bit of class.

They may look frozen, but they're really just trying to stand still. — They may look frozen, but they’re really just trying to stand still.

There are a couple of faces that people may recognise – Edward Fox is the most notable having been in a number of classics over the years, but there’s also Alan Tilvern playing a Nazi scientist here, but in another life he was the slimey RK Maroon in Who Framed Roger Rabbit. Fox is a bit player in the grand scheme of things, as much of the narrative is dominated by scientist Dr Norberg and his relationship with the younger Dr Roberts and Norberg’s daughter Jean, followed in a close second by arguments with older Nazi scientists including the less than subtly named Dr Tirpitz.

It is otherwise a mostly disappointing venture, limiting much of the story to their science lab and doing little of interest with either the defrosted Nazis or, indeed, much else. There is some intrigue in the reanimated head of a woman, Elsa (Kathleen Breck) and the array of dismembered arms that are all attached to a nearby wall which she can, eventually, control with her mental powers, but then this proves to be equally as silly in practice as it is in principle.

The Frozen Dead proves to be yet another non-zombie zombie movie, being released shortly before George Romero revolutionised the zombie mythos. It’s easy to look back and say how things should have probably been done, especially now that there is a viable sub-genre of Nazi Zombie movies out there. Even despite the potential the story may have had, limiting much of the action to a couple of sets makes it feel like a stage play that has been adapted for film rather than a cinematic venture.

Score: 1.5/5

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=owk9CNzi2o8

2015 Film Trailers – Jurassic World, Star Wars Episode 7, Hardcore

By

Simon Prior

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2014-11-30

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This week saw the release of two teaser trailers for two big releases due in 2015. I’m not usually the type of person who falls into the trap of trailers (see previous blog posts on this subject), however in both of these cases I made an exception. The first was for Jurassic World, a belated sequel in the Jurassic Park franchise. The trailer was so hyped up that it received its very own 17 second teaser trailer around a week before the full teaser trailer was released. I question the validity of this marketing method – isn’t it just a trailer for a trailer? Despite this grouchy opinion, the full trailer certainly did its job and I am perhaps looking forward to its release next summer all the more. It seems to have found the right balance between briefly analysing the plot without showing off much of the dinosaurs or the reason(s) why things go horribly wrong (again).

The second trailer I watched was for Star Wars Episode 7: The Force Awakens. Last week I enjoyed a fake, fan-made trailer that was racking up a huge number of hits on YouTube and wherever other good trailers can be found (in other words, pretty much just on YouTube). I’ve always considered myself to be more of a Star Trek fan rather than of Star Wars, but as a fan of science fiction on the whole I appreciate what the Star Wars universe has done for cinema and the genre and at times can nitpick with the best of them. Or perhaps the average nitpickers. I don’t have a huge problem with George Lucas remastering his films, although I would prefer the originals to exist in some form or another simply because I don’t believe in retconning the past. Still, this teaser trailer has everything fans want to see – new characters in the spotlight, an intriguing glimpse of a new type of lightsaber, and the Millennium Falcon. Yet true to previous form, it gives absolutely nothing away regarding the story. As this December marks the release of the third and final Hobbit movie, it leaves next December wide open for Star Wars to make an absolute killing at the box office.

For pretty much everything else, I’m indifferent to when a trailer is released – I’m happy to wait for the film to come out and to decide if it’s worth watching based on the plot synopsis. I’ll likely show keen interest when the next Bond film trailer is released, and I’ll reserve judgement for Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and Avengers: Age of Ultron until until we see a bit more from both productions – I don’t need a trailer to know I’ll be seeing both of them regardless. More recently I had a quick look at the trailer for Hardcore last week, a film due in 2015 starring Sharlto Copley and shot entirely from the perspective of the protagonist. As a fan of both first person shooters and films, this one looks like it will be a lot of fun indeed, but only if it can maintain the same level of quality for a feature length running time. But then, if video games can get away with a compelling 6-8 hour campaign, surely a film can do just as well with an 80-90 minute running time?

28 Days Later (2002)

By

Simon Prior

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2014-11-27

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Jim wondered where all the gift shops had gone.

Twitter Plot Summary: 28 days after a virus wipes out the UK, Jim wakes up in hospital and goes on his merry way. Sort of.

Five Point Summary:

1. Abandoned London. Striking.
2.Survivors, attacks, fires!
3.Christmas lights.
4.One drop of blood is all it takes.
5. Rage is in all of us, etc etc.

28 Days Later deserves much praise for reinvigorating the zombie genre and, pun intended, bringing it back from what had become a shuffling corpse thanks to a number of awful, low budget zombie films. Without this film, it’s unlikely that The Walking Dead would have made such an impact on television, or the Dawn of the Dead remake would have gained any traction on its release in 2004, in particular for its use of fast zombies.

Of course, strictly speaking 28 Days Later is not a zombie film. These aren’t living dead chasing after the survivors, instead they are infected with a rage virus so at their most basic level they’re just really angry – like football hooligans or anybody who’s been forced to watch a Miley Cyrus music video against their will. The virus is released from a science lab in good old Blighty and decimates much of the country. 28 days later, Jim (Murphy) wakes up in hospital from a coma – completely naked too – alone and with no clue as to what has gone down. He soon meets a couple of survivors, Naomie Harris’s Selena among them, who fill him in on the grizzly details. It then becomes a road journey as they, along with Londoner Frank (Gleeson) and his daughter Hannah (Burns) attempt to reach a military checkpoint where the cure may or may not be available.

Dr Who's toughened up a bit, hasn't he? — Dr Who’s toughened up a bit, hasn’t he?

There are a few minor issues that prevent it from being a cast iron classic. First and foremost is that the young girl playing Brendan Gleeson’s daughter is terrible. Every line of dialogue is delivered with a far too wooden tone, and the only time she appears to actually be playing the role is when she’s scared. The story also feels like it’s jumping into awkward territory once the soldiers get involved, although it maintains that element of believability that inspired it in the first instance, and perfectly demonstrates the inherent violence and rage that exists in all of us. Despite this, it does occasionally feel like it’s made a narrative jump that it can’t recover from, but it does at least have more going for it than one of the proposed endings involving a full blood transplant – silly indeed.

Still, if you ignore these relatively minor points, Danny Boyle has made a superb film that revitalised a genre. The scenes of an abandoned London and the famous landmarks are striking for their desolation, and the choice to shoot much of the film on standard Canon XL-1 cameras adds an air of harsh reality to events. John Murphy’s soundtrack perfectly matches the mood of the film, and is so effective the key theme in the climactic finale was used throughout sequel 28 Weeks Later. Boyle also proves to be a dab hand at action sequences – the attacks from the infected have the power to genuinely terrify, as does the fact a single drop of infected blood has the power to turn you. It all amounts to powerful cinema and a worthy entry into the zombie genre, whether they are living dead or otherwise.

Score: 4/5

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