PopHorror Let's Get Scared
28 Days Later is a very memorable horror film, and not just because of it’s a fast-paced, raging “zombies.” It also looks at the horror of accidents. Let me explain.
Released in 2002, Danny Boyle’s 28 Days Later has aged pretty well. It is a thoroughly modern, action-packed movie, but not overbearingly so. Just as important, it looks at how small mistakes and flaws in judgment can have far-reaching consequences.
When the film begins, some well-meaning animal rights activists break into a research facility, intending to free primates (and presumably other animals) who are being tested. Being driven by moral certitude, they ignore the pleas of a scientist against freeing the chimpanzees, who carry a so-called “rage virus” — which functions exactly as one might suspect. One of the well-meaning activists gets bitten by an angry chimp, and becomes little more than an angry chimp herself, attacking anyone within her reach. The scene presents a warning, not against animal rights activists, but against humanity: Everything you do has unintended consequences.
The Plausibility Factor
What’s striking about this scene is just how plausible it is. While a rage virus has yet to break out on a mass scale, it seems like a curveball that nature could throw our way. It also reminds one of rabies and mental conditions that make people crazy. Could human beings accidentally create a crisis like this? Perhaps. Similar themes exist in the film 12 Monkeys — another brilliant, very weird movie where well-meaning activists become scrutinized for their suspected role in triggering a global disease epidemic.
It’s also interesting how similar 28 Days Later is to The Walking Dead in some respects. While the “zombies” in 28 Days Later technically aren’t zombies, but just very angry humans, some parallels can definitely be drawn. For one thing, both stories begin with someone waking from a coma in a hospital to find the world transformed, and both stories deal with plenty of catastrophic mistakes and villainous human characters.
Ultimately, 28 Days Later is one of the most plausible depictions of infected human crazies in horror. Oddly enough, this may be why it’s not as far-reaching as a franchise. Its content perhaps hits a little closer to home, as damn near every aspect of it could happen. In contrast, we know it’s highly unlikely that actual corpses will re-animate and stalk the earth seeking human victims. We also know that, more than likely, human beings would stand a pretty decent chance of dealing with such an affliction, were it to occur. The dead tend to rot, which gradually makes them less of a threat. Global devastation would be possible, but it’s unlikely that every place would become like Mad Max, at least not equally.
Hope?
Some places are better equipped to deal with such outbreaks, and some people are less likely to be impacted altogether. Almost through dumb luck, Jim (Cillian Murphy), Selena (Naomie Harris), Frank (Brendan Gleeson) and Hannah (Megan Burns) are all initial survivors of the rage virus. While the world around them seems to fall apart, the film ends up almost optimistic toward the very end. This is a somewhat rare phenomenon for a post-apocalyptic film, which leaves more of a unique impression. Indeed, it’s a bit of a payoff that there is some hope for the future, even if we know such accidents could happen again. And who knows? Maybe something like this could happen to us for real. Either way, many of us have a chance to survive, even if only as a happy accident.
What are your thoughts on 28 Days Later? Is it plausible, and is it somewhat hopeful? Let us know in the comments.
