Philosophy and Film

28 days later is not your typical zombie movie.  The first scene shows how stupid people let test subject monkeys go free from a laboratory  What the idiots didn't realize was that these monkeys had been injected with pure rage virus. Quickly, the virus spreads and a large chunk of the world's population is infected, effectively becoming zombies. You enter the present world with Jim, who has just woken up from a coma. After coming to his senses, he quickly realizes something is not right. There are no nurses, no doctors, no one throughout the entire hospital. He goes outside...nothing. Is he dreaming? He finds a bulletin board with hundreds of missing persons and death notices. He realizes that the world has significantly changed since he was last conscious. Eventually, the viewers and Jim are confronted with scary zombies that are slightly faster and hungrier than your typical zombie.

The first part of the movie revolves around Jim and a couple of other survivors attempting to make their way to a supposed army sponsored safe zone. As they make their way cross country, they are confronted by blood thirsty zombies and must beat them senseless in order to get a way. This plot is definitely your classic "art-horror," as Carroll would describe. The characters in 28 days later are disgusted by the zombies, but I think that there is a deeper emotional response to zombies. Every zombie on the face of the planet was at one point a human being with a life and a family. Now, they have been transformed into this revolting creature who only has the sole desire to feast on the body of a human being. Jim has an issue at first with killing zombies (unlike Selena who is head to toe in armor and weapons) because he realizes that zombies were at first humans. However, he quickly learns that there is a difference, so he loses that emotional connection.

The second half of the movie is what I find to be most interesting and definitely highlights Cynthia Freeland's concept of realist horror. When the survivors make it to the safe place, they are introduced to a group of rowdy soldiers. There are two girls in the group of survivors who quickly realize that they have taken the role of "hot piece of meat." Soon, we realize the intentions of the soldiers as they give the girls long gowns and oogle them. Jim realizes that these people are not good people and soon attempts to leave with Selena and Hannah. The soldiers, however, have a different plan. A chase ensues and the soldiers try their hardest to protect their warm bodies. Eventually Jim, Selena, and Hannah escape the grasps of the soldiers.

The fact that the entirety of the second half revolves around human beings as being corrupt and evil sends an interesting message. Of course, the entire zombie outbreak was really started by human beings as well. According to this movie, there is certainly a good amount of evil within the human race. The horror truly revolves around human stupidity, corruption, greed, etc. Danny Boyle, the film's director, makes a point by saying that people can be even more monstrous than terrible zombies. While the movie is about zombies, the real terror is seen in what human beings can do to one another. Thus, 28 days later is a hybrid between classic and realistic horror.