28 Days Later

Britain it seems currently rules the roost when it comes to quality "zombie" movies. This, along with Shaun Of The Dead, show that the brits can beat George Romero at his own game in the scares and satire department. 

28 Days Later is not strictly a zombie film. The "undead" in this movie are living, breathing humans who are infected with a virus cheesily termed "rage".

In a prologue we see where the virus began to spread, a group of activists free some laboratory monkeys which unbeknownst to them have been infected with a deadly virus.

A virus which is not only deadly but hugely contagious turning its host into a blood-spewing, human chewing mostrosity almost immediately.

Flash forward 28 Days Later and we now join Cillian Murphy as Jim who has just awoken from a coma to find the city of London almost completely deserted. It is in these early scenes where the movie stakes its claim to be up there with the best horror movies. Deserted city streets have been shown before, think Vanilla Sky's Times Square opening dream sequence, but that is no match for the eerie sequence on show here. As Jim stumbles through the empty streets, taking in a few landmarks on his way, the music builds as the enormity of the horror becomes apparent. For a feeling of apocalyptic paranioa, this sequence is unmatched in film history.

The atmosphere is slightly ruined when some human counterparts show up as some of the acting on display is not the film's strongest point. Luckily Cillian Murphy in the film's central role manages to carry the film on his shoulders until Christopher Eccleston turns up to lend some acting gravitas.

There are numerous memeorable scenes, the aformentioned London opening salvo, an encounter with the "infected" and a horde of rats in a motorway tunnel and a pair of truly affecting moments when Jim comes across his dead parents and a young girl watches as her father, newly infected, is swiftly killed.

A mixture of heart and horror give Danny Boyle's gritty, DV-shot modern day horror the edge amongst such bland blockbuster fare as the Dawn Of The Dead remake. George Romero has his work cut out matching the striking originality of this in his latest The Land Of The Dead. For now 28 Days Later is the true contemporary horror classic.