28 days later...disappointed
Hey there,
I was invited to join this discussion. Below is my comment. It pretty much says it all. "28 Days Later.." was overhyped. Reinvent horror? No way. If you are going to have the nerve to say that, the movie had better deliver. This did not.
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Hello? HELLOOOOOOOO?!!!! Where's the horror? HELLOOOOOOOO?!!
I was excited going into this movie. Zombies. British. British zombies. End of the world. Yeah, yeah, yeah. This is a classic example of over hyped mania. This movie does not reinvent horror. Nor is it terrifying. Nor does it fit into any other adjective spit out by some overpaid blurb writer. This is what it is: Post apocalyptic survivors going from one desolate English town to another while they try to connect with each other. Scares are scarce.
"HELLOOOOOOOO?!" Remember that word. It's the theme of this movie. It's about connecting, dang it! How would you handle the world flipping upside down? What choices would you make to survive? Would you be able to make hard decisions at a moments notice? Like bashing the head in of some drooling, raging maniac? Not a hard choice at all for me. Of course I would. Gladly.
This is not a horror movie. It's a sci-fi thriller that's low on thrills. There are no zombies either. Like Umberto Lenzi's "Nightmare City", they are infected with some sort of virus, (The Rage Virus), and go about randomly attacking people. Unlike "Nightmare City", this movie is not fun at all. All the attacks are shot "Saving Pvt. Ryan" style. Very fast speed. Also, most of the attacks are in the dark so you'll have double trouble actually telling what in the heck is going on. But the big problem is that the "zombies" are not attacking nearly enough. That might be because the "zombies" are not what this movie is about. It's about connecting, rebuilding, desolation, empty streets, nothingness, no future, dreary English musings on life, etc. When you have a horror movie that is not about the horror, that's the first sign that something is stinky.
When the survivors run into the soldiers near the end, the movie picks up a bit. There is some infected action and suspense. But by the end I had had it with this world and was ready for them all to be infected. It would have made the movie livelier. The hype surrounding this movie definitely plays a part in my disliking this film. I don't know what difference it would have made if I had went in cold. My dad saw it with me and gave it a B. He knew nothing about the flick before sitting down to watch it. If you walk into the movie theater healthy and hype free, you may think "28 Days Later" is fair. If you've read this comment to this point, you're infected.
Blimey! (He said in a British way)
What is it you guys want? Constant thrashing and bleeding and writhing corpses, screaming and growling for two hours?
If 28 Days later was going to be more violent then you would need to start with a bigger cast or just end the movie real short, otherwise it's just a movie of people running around in packs with red eyes and not a lot else.
Maybe I'm missing my beloved London, but I loved the movie. I thought it was edgy without being pretentious, it was thrilling without being plain visceral and somehow it managed to cram in humourous (see, even spelled it British) and clever into a plot which was hard to get those elements into.
I wouldnt call the film a masterpiece, but on the other hand what is a great horror movie of the last three years?
Can't think of one meself.
Thanks,
Charles.
This isnt an anti-american issue.
Dude,
You made it sound like I was making a generalisation about Americans and their feelings about the movie. I don't believe your views represent a uniquely American perspective, I'm sure there were Brits who felt similarly and people of every other nation who saw the movie who probably felt similarly too.
I know for a fact that many Americans loved the movie... my wife included.
I'm sorry if it came off as if I was being patronising or offensive to Americans, that's not what I meant and I don't think that's what I said.
I was simply asking the people that posted in this thread saying they that 28 days later was boring or lacking in thrills or whatever.
I also wanted to know that if 28 days later was not a good thriller/chiller/horror then give me the name of a recent movie in that genre that was better?
Perhaps you could tell me more about "Session 9"?, i've never heard of it.
My sig is just jokey stuff, I don't mean anything about the quote about Americans... I'm married to a beautiful smart 27 year old petite 36D-24-35 blue eyed blonde Minnesotan, she's the love of my life - Something I could'nt find in Britain
Peace,
Charles.
Oversights Understandable, But Underlying Fear Palpable
The first critique of this movie is understanding as I had the same problems with this movie, but the fundamental direction and cinematrography, acting were so good that I overcame the movie's short-comings. This movie is one of the best horror movies I've seen, yes even lacking the constant (and for me) obnoxious blood and gore. This movie made up for its weaknesses with a brilliant, underlying constant dreaded fear that horror movies must contain. This cerebral movie was more true to life (yes, excepting for clean grocery stores and our anti-gun group of survivors, and super cars bouncing over tunnel wrecks).
The feel of isolation, the feel of the collapse of organized government and civilization, the feel of powerlessness, and being alone were all well-captured on screen. Man and sex is a primitive emotion, the need to re-populate. Of course I wouldn't personally unleash a trapped zombie-like person without protecting my woman or women - but well one takes one's chances in the big mansion.
"Psycho" didn't seem to require all that much blood and gore to be effective and that fear didn't have to jump out at every corner. "28 Days Later" is a classic return to something much more difficult to achieve, poor horror of silence and the mundane. The empty streets and cooridors (cleansed of the evil and rage by the monsters that take their dead apparently away from the pure light of day) provoke a much more primal fear than anything I can imagine - a Twilight Zone of emptiness.