Not to mention that the quick-and-dirty shooting it allows gave Boyle and co. 28 Days Later was shot on digital video, and while this choice (like Night’s black-and-white filming) was dictated by expedience as much as aesthetic concerns, it gives the movie a raw, you-are-there feeling that has fresh relevance in this era of reality television. Up until the movie’s restoration for laserdisc and DVD, Night’s grainy look was cited both for giving its events a stark immediacy, and for tying its horrors (some explicitly echoing then-current concerns) in with the gritty film footage airing on television. There’s a link beyond the subject matter between 28 Days Later and Night of the Living Dead, and that is the way the roughness of its technical look contributes to its blunt effectiveness. Gleeson and Naomie Harris, as two of Jim’s fellow survivors, and Christopher Eccleston as a military man of questionable motivations are equally compelling, with Garland’s script never forgetting that we need to be interested in and care about the living in order to be truly concerned about what the almost-dead are up to. As audience surrogate and everyman, the unknown Murphy is well-cast and maintains viewer empathy right through to the end, as he inevitably comes to take matters violently into his own hands. The filmmakers have described Jim’s arc as an odyssey through a series of father figures who wind up failing him, and indeed, the supporting characters’ apparent abilities to take charge of the situation exist in inverse proportion to their chances for survival. Throughout, Boyle and Garland subscribe to one of Joe Bob Briggs’ key rules for horror films: Anyone can die at any time. And he also knows how to subvert expectations, as when Jim, taxi driver Frank (Brendan Gleeson) and the rest of their small band are trapped in a highway tunnel. Boyle works plenty of seat-jumpers out of their sudden, murderous appearances, but he’s not just out for shock effects the viciousness of these setpieces is genuinely bloodcurdling, and once we know what the “infected” are capable of, he builds plenty of suspense out of the threat of their appearance. Rather than slow, lumbering creatures whose numbers and implacability pose the threat, the “infected” move with superhuman speed, lurching out of nowhere to attack their victims. Separating them from the ghouls of Romero’s films and others of their ilk is the manner in which Boyle presents the attacks. As someone says in Dawn of the Dead, “They’re us.” They’re not out to drink blood, or eat brains-they’re driven purely by homicidal anger, which makes them very much of their time, a period when “road rage” and “air rage” are frequently in the news. The city is now deserted save for a handful of survivors and roving, raving packs of afflicted people, who savagely assault anyone they encounter. He soon discovers that a lot has happened while he was out: animal activists accidentally let loose a “rage virus” from a primate testing lab, and it has gone on to infect a very large percentage of the population. Boyle is back in theaters this month with “Yesterday,” while Garland is the creator of FX’s upcoming science-ficion drama series “Devs.Dovetailing neatly and eerily (but coincidentally, as it was filmed before 9/11) with current concerns about mass human destruction and deadly diseases, 28 Days Later follows Jim (Cillian Murphy) a London bike messenger who wakes up in hospital after a month-long coma. Garland’s quote had many fans at the time wondering if two more “28 Days Later” films would be coming, but development on a third movie has yet to start. … It’s more likely to be ’28 Months’ than ’28 Years.’ 28 months gives you one more place to go.” Danny and Andrew and I have been having quite serious conversations about it so it is a possibility. “We’ve just started talking about it seriously,” Garland told IGN in 2015. Both films were well-received by horror fans, many of whom have been anticipating a third project that Garland has teased would be “28 Months Later.” “28 Weeks Later” was less successful but still turned a profit with $65 million worldwide on a $15 million budget. The film made $85 million at the worldwide box office on a production budget of only $8 million. “28 Weeks Later” was a critical and commercial success when it opened in fall 2002. Danny Boyle Praises Alex Garland’s ’28 Days Later’ 3 Script and Is ‘Tempted’ to Direct It
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