The 'zombie' genre has been plundered over the years in every corner of the world.
I use the term 'zombie' in a broad sense, evoking not necessarily only the dead coming back to life, but also potentially healthy people infected by any virus or bacteria.
Directors and screenwriters, from time to time, have been concerned with bringing objective constants and subjective variables to the context.
The constants: escape / barricade / (potential) extermination. The variables, on the other hand, range from social denunciation to the denial of rights, pointing the finger depending on the case and the contingent era.
'28 Days Later' is considered by genre enthusiasts as a little gem, if not even the ultimate masterpiece.
Let's try to extrapolate the reasons.
First of all, the skill and courage of director Danny Boyle and the clean writing of screenwriter Alex Garland. Then, the skill of the actors who, in addition to casually fitting into the role, interpret the film with feeling, reaching the viewer easily and engaging him.
Cillian Murphy (Jim), still a bit green but precisely for this reason absolutely suitable for the role of the inexperienced bewildered one who gradually gains credibility and boldness; Naomie Harris (Selena) who undergoes, if not the exact opposite path, a progressive awareness of her own fragility; Megan Burns (Hannah), splendid in showing values and expectations above average for a teenager; Brendan Gleeson (Frank), a loving and courageous father who ends up extending his figure also to Jim and Selena. Finally, the eclectic Christopher Eccleston (Major West), dazed by an absolutely perverse and out-of-line sense of duty.
The viewer finds comfort from the passage of information, from the unwinding plot that does not bluff or improvise anything striking, but at the same time takes shape capturing empathy and interest.
The key character of the entire film is little Hannah, who due to her experiences changes the expectations of the other characters, extracting from Selena a visceral love that completes the instinctive sense of protection of the father, who will die trying to secure her future, but at the same time making her the architect of the final escape from a false refuge that was defiling her innocence, while also saving Jim and Selena from the clutches of the wandering bomb West.
'28 Days Later' becomes a must-see where one seeks catastrophe, infections, immediate danger of death using an educated, contextualized splatter, not gratuitous.
Five years later, considering its success, the sequel '28 Weeks Later' was proposed, which misses the opportunity to give life and continuation to the protagonists of the first chapter by shifting (and mistakenly, in the writer’s opinion) the focus to a less interesting parallel context, even if with a reason for being.
A potential '28 Months Later' has been whispered about for a decade, and Boyle, pressed by the media, has clarified that he does not want to spoil anything because, in his view, the creators of 'TWD' might take advantage of it to.
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