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Whoa, whoa, whoa. Nearly a week before Halloween, and we haven’t spotlighted a zombie film?
Well, here’s two: 28 Days Later (2002) and 28 Weeks Later (2007). The original and the sequel are watershed zombie films. They changed the game. Moaning, meandering brain-eaters are officially boring. Danny Boyle’s two-part, digitally-shot original turned the walking dead into the dead-sprinting. Also, they vomit torrents of blood. Also, people turn into zombies instantly.
Atmospheric is too kind of a word. In the opening scene of 28 Days, and most memorable scene of the film, Cillian Murphy wakes in a hospital (after being in a coma) to find London completely deserted. He wanders into a church. He sees a priest who looks…off. From there-on-out, Boyle juxtaposes a dreary, apocalyptic London against the blood-spurting, kinetic zombies. It’s the first–and best–of its kind. The operative word is: nightmarish.
28 Weeks Later, I’d argue, is a more disturbing presentation. It’s a little less, you know, story, and much more of a sensory assault. You can feel the zombies attack.
The sequel begins in-the-middle of a zombie-occupied London. The uninfected are quarantined in a apartment-fortress that’s pretty well-protected by Jeremy Renner. Once the inevitable happens, when zombies infiltrate the apartment complex, the film is pretty much: run. Which is great, but few moments match the brutality, the barbaric-ness of the first 10 minutes of the film.
The Mixmaster’s Horror Movie Countdown
October 1: Halloween
October 2: Antichrist
October 3: Student Bodies
October 4: Poltergeist
October 5: Jaws
October 6: Suspiria
October 7: Scream
October 8: The Fly
October 9: Dead Alive
October 10: Drag Me to Hell
October 11: Se7en
October 12: Rosemary’s Baby
October 13: Friday the 13th
October 14: The Thing
October 15: Audition
October 16 and 17: The Exorcist and The Exorcist III
October 18: The Omen
October 19: Paranormal Activity
October 20: Changeling
October 21: Hellraiser
