44. 28 Days Later (#108)

This week on The Rotten Horror Picture Show Amanda and Clay head back to jolly old England, but instead of being quaint and full of outdated clothing and hairdo’s, like in An American Werewolf in London, this time it’s completely deserted and filled with bloodthirsty rage monsters and very few snacks. Nope, it’s not baccarat night at your mother-in-law’s, it’s the modern classic from Danny Boyle, 2002’s 28 Days Later!

A group of misguided animal rights activists free a caged chimp infected with the “Rage” virus from a medical research lab. When London bike courier Jim (Cillian Murphy) wakes up from a coma a month after, he finds his city all but deserted. On the run from the zombie-like victims of the Rage, Jim stumbles upon a group of survivors, including Selena (Naomie Harris) and cab driver Frank (Brendan Gleeson), and joins them on a perilous journey to what he hopes will be safety.

Join Clay and Amanda as they pay their last respects to…well honestly, you know what? Forty-four episodes in and we finally had a movie that broke us. You’ll find a lot of stuff in this movie, but it was actually kinda tough to quip about. The parenting is pretty solid, there’s running zombies (are they zombies?) for the first time in modern history, and it was the jumping-off point for the modern zombie revival, and isn’t that enough?

Despite being sarcastically confused as a sequel to a middle-of-the-road Sandra Bullock vehicle, 28 Days Later is a milestone movie for 21st-century horror. Not only did it jump-start the zombie craze that (fittingly) never seems to stay dead, but it also pushed the boundaries regarding what you could do with digital cameras, well before they were as ubiquitous as they are today. A master class in using the medium to create mood and texture, 28 Days Later is still a movie that has yet to be topped, and surprisingly yet to be imitated. In a genre full of copies and ripoffs, 28 Days Later stands alone!

So drink too many sodas, puke some blood, and try to find the answer to infection with us…if you DARE!