What's more frightening than zombies?

A middle-aged English man's dentist bill!

I'm just fucking with you.... the English don't go to the dentist... because their are none in England. To the original question, as to what is more frightening that zombies? Zombies in England (see we've come full circle).

Now as far as coming up with something original within a genre that has been beaten to death with over saturation, 28 Days Later does manage a modest amount of success in the uniqueness department. The zombies in this film are the unfortunate victims of an infection from something called the RAGE virus (obviously an aberration of tooth decay... another virus rampant among those fuckin' Brits), and unlike their previous mindless, slow moving counterparts, these zombies are quick and savage..... much like the bacteria within a pre-root canalled English bicuspid. (Yes two bad teeth English jokes in one paragraph!!! I rule!).

28 Days Later opens in a truly unique way by giving us the perspective of a man who wakes from some kind of coma in a deserted hospital. From our vantage point we share the same confusion he does as walks through a London that is devoid of life.... much the same way the country is devoid of dental care.

After some snooping our guide (played by Cillian Murphy) does run into a band of zombies, and is narrowly rescued by a pair of zombie-killing experts. They fill him in (and us) and blah blah blah same old zombie movie. Humans run and hide, some die, they pick up some new companions, some new companions die, they decide on a destination and / or goal, and then they reach said goal only to find that it was not all they had hoped it would be..... pretty much the standard zombie movie template to the letter.

The goal or destination in 28 Days Later is to follow a repeating radio broadcast to a military base where they have the answer to infection. That answer to infection? A gaggle of British soldiers playing G.I. Joe in what looks like Scarface's old house. They have food, liquor, smokes, plenty of guns, and thanks to the arrival of the group of survivors, two fresh vaginas (and one penis, but that is overlooked).

The time stamp in this movie is 4 weeks, hence the title of this sweeping epic 28 Days Later. The biggest problem I had with this film, is the lack of time it took for the human being to revert to a savage, thriving on little more than blood lust, and the reward of rape. Agreed, that over a period of time, dwelling in the aforementioned circumstances would take it's toll on the most stable of minds, and inevitably drive us to a less than civilized approach toward life. However I think that period of time would be far greater than 28 days. What exacerbates this problem for me, is that the individuals who quickly embrace this new savage lifestyle of rape and killing are military men, generally a group that follows a strict and orderly regimen. But then I remembered that they are English, and if it took them 28 days to get to rape, then you know dental hygiene went out the window on day 1.

28 Days Later is actually a gem within a genre that is dedicated to producing truly bad movies. It's originality on the zombie theme is to be commended, and if you can get past the silly accents of the actors within the movie, you might enjoy it.... then again maybe not.

Hamlin Grade: 5


Timothy Dalton is the one true James Bond,
pat