28 Days Later

[Prince Lazy I]

This is a new zombie movie from Danny Boyle, the British director of "Trainspotting", "The Beach" etc. And what do you know - it's GOOD! The scenario is as follows - animal rights protestors break into Government labs bent on freeing monkeys from cruel & unusual experiments - however, the monkeys (& very soon the liberators) are infected with RAGE, a horrifyingly fast-acting virus that turns primates into blood-spewing frenzy-monsters...

And there you go! After an elegiac & truly moving sequence depicting the abandoned, eerily silent streets of London, the rest of the film trots along in the time-honoured genre fashion, somewhere between Day Of The Triffids and Night Of The Living Dead. When the zombies attack, it's genuinely scary, since they break with tradition in the most satisfying way possible. What do I mean? Well, you know the deal with zombies - "Ooh! The zombies are chasing us! Let's stroll a little faster..." Not these muthas! They're FAST... and you'll need to be faster.

Despite a certain over-reliance on stereotype towards the latter reels, I thoroughly enjoyed this movie: you'll actually care what happens to the main characters, and that's maybe the best thing about it. Apart from the zombies, of course!