How 28 days later changed zombie media forever

A deep dive of my favourite film of all time

With the rise in fame in zombie media these past few years with things such as the walking dead rising in popularity. Most people however dont know how majority of modern zombies take inspiration from Danny Boyle’s 28 days later.

what made it unique

This film changed the course of modern zombie films with being one of the first films where the “zombies” weren’t actually dead. Instead they were infected with rage. Most zombie films had a zombie outbreak where it caused the dead to come alive or where there was an infection which turns people into the walking dead. However 28 days later’s virus originated from apes where they were forced to watch violence in humans. The apes, as described, where infected with rage.

Another thing that made it unique was how this virus was spread. Most zombie film had the person become infected by being bitten or simply by dying and becoming one. They also usually took a decent amount of time to become one. meanwhile with 28 days later this virus was spread through blood or spit as long as it enters your body, the infected would vomit blood into the victims face. It could be in your eyes, mouth or an open wound a singular drop can cause you to become infected. The victim would also only have a few seconds before becoming infected.

Another major thing was the speed and abilities of the zombies was wildly different to the ones of the past. These zombies had the ability to run at an extremely fast pace with being able to keep up with a human and even catch them. When it comes to abilities they have the abilities to climb. like speed most zombie films before this the zombies never had the opportunity to be able climb. However with this film they had the ability to climb up things at a fast pace.

their motives

most zombies usually act out of hunger going after humans and eating them. Films such as dawn of the dead follow this pattern. 28 days later however they dont go after humans to eat, as stated earlier they are infected with rage so they will beat whoever the victim is. They do not eat humans the urge of rage over powers all other needs. Therefore most of the first wave of infected died after 28 weeks due to starvation.

how it shot

This film as can be told by the image wasn’t shot to at a high quality. This isn’t because it was filmed in 2001. The main reason it is such a low quality is because the director Danny Boyle filmed on a Canon XL-1 which for the industry at that time was a low grade camera which big productions didn’t use. Most people think that Danny Boyle wasn’t a big director at this point in time which is not true. Danny Boyle has already made the hit Trainspotting before this film so he was a very well known director. This grainy quality in my opinion adds to the aesthetic and mood of this film. It adds a more of a horror tone and a dirty feel to the film.

The most iconic scene in this whole film is the scene where Cillian Murphy who plays the main character of Jim walks out of St’ Thomas’s hospital and walks out onto an abandoned Westminster bridge. This was extremely impressive due to this film being shot on such a short budget (5 million pounds or 8 million dollars) He didn’t have enough money to block of the bridge to film. So, they ended up going into central London extremely early in the morning and quickly setting up the set and filming before the public came. The now busy London appears empty and abandoned

how it changed zombie media

with this film it had changed the way people viewed zombies even though these are actually people infected with rage. This film along with resident evil were credited with the revival for the zombie genre. People now realised their could be different variations of zombies. Things like world war z being able to detect whether someone is sick or not too pass on the virus. Films like the 2004 remake of dawn of the dead were inspired by 28 days later.

overall 28 days later helped revive the zombie genre, how people viewed the genre and how zombies dont have to be slow and eat brains but can be more than that.