28 DAYS LATER...
28 DAYS LATER...
Danny Boyle and Alex Garland’s genre-defining reinvention of the zombie film. Cillian Murphy delivers a breakthrough performance as Jim, who wakes from a coma to find England overrun by the Rage virus. Together with Selena, he must fight to survive in a world where the greatest threat may not be the infected, but humanity itself.
Twenty-three years ago, Danny Boyle, the acclaimed director of TRAINSPOTTING, and Alex Garland, a devotee of George A. Romero’s horror legacy, set out to breathe new life into the zombie subgenre. The result was the film 28 DAYS LATER, with Cillian Murphy in a breakthrough role as Jim, wandering through a deserted London in hospital clothes.
Shown here as part of OUTSIDE THE BOX section, the film is a chance to plunge headlong into a post-apocalyptic Britain ravaged by the Rage virus, where survival takes precedence over humanity itself.
The outbreak is sparked by a seemingly noble act: animal rights activists break into a laboratory to liberate abused test subjects, unaware that the chimpanzees inside are infected with a virus that triggers uncontrollable aggression, transmitted through contact with a single drop of blood. Within 28 days, British society collapses. Into this world awakens Jim (Murphy), stepping out of a silent London hospital to find himself in a country torn apart. His fight for survival begins, joined by Selena (Naomie Harris).
Few filmmakers have shaken up the zombie horror as radically as Boyle did, following in the footsteps of Romero. From TRAINSPOTTING creator comes the fast, feral infected, eyes blazing with bloodlust and chaos.
Yet Boyle does not focus on the rabid zombie hordes, but on what happens to human beings when civilisation falls away – when the old structures of safety, order and compassion vanish, leaving only brutal choices in their wake. Will only the strongest survive, those willing to abandon the very values that make us human?
Far from being a mere horror flick, Boyle’s film carries a searing social critique. In an age marked by polarisation and the erosion of altruism, 28 DAYS LATER still strikes a chillingly relevant note: a stark warning dressed in apocalyptic terror.
Text: Michał Sołtysek
The film 28 DAYS LATER... will be screened at WSK - Wytwórnia Sprzętu Komunikacyjnego (Transport Equipment Factory) in Poznań (Unii Lubelskiej 3 Street).
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