28 Days Later

28 Days Later, together with Dog Soldiers and the soon to be released Deathwatch, shows that Great Britain seems to be creating a new renaissance of intelligent, atmospheric horror flicks. Though too early to view it as a Hammer Horror rebirth, we can only hope for bigger, better and even more terrifying!

Danny Boyle (Trainspotting) has created the ultimate thrill-ride, telling the story of a deadly virus – Rage - that once transmitted causes people to become bloodthirsty creatures filled with a murderous fury that is seemingly unstoppable. Unwittingly released by good-intentioned animal activists, it decimates the entire population, perhaps the world. A month after the initial outbreak, Jim (Cillian Murphy) wakes up from a coma, wandering a deserted, decimated London before running into fellow survivors (including the amazing Naomie Harris as survival-hardened nurse Selena, and caring, decent Brendan Gleeson) and, of course, the monstrous Infected.

At times explicitly gory, at times thought-provoking (Jim's constant search for a father figure is highly unexpected in such a genre piece) Boyle's digitally filmed masterpiece may have many 'predecessors' but few equals.

Darren Chadwick