This is a brilliant film, possibly the greatest horror film of all time...for the first fifty minutes. The first half of this movie is stunningly good. It redefines the zombie genre, giving us a realistic view of the world following such a catastrophe. Director Danny Boyle follows the first rule of horror: take it seriously. The reasons behind the zombie apocalypse are believable enough, as are the results. Jim (Cillian Murphy) wakes from a coma in a hospital bed, naked and confused. He finds the hospital is deserted and he has no idea how long he's been unconscious. He stumbles out on to the London streets to find them empty as well. The scenes of Jim's discovery are perfectly handled. When he discovers that the world has been consumed by an epidemic, and finds other survivors, the film really finds its groove. This film makes the zombies actually frightening since they're not undead, they're infected by a man-made virus. This means the classic shuffling undead slabs of evil meat are gone. These zombies run, and blindly attack in a violent rage. So, its a little like being in the parking lot of a futbol game.

Where the film falters is when Boyle decides to remove the characters from their abandoned urban setting, and has them travel out into the rural areas. There they come across a band of soldiers who are bunkered in a huge mansion. Once the heroes enter the mansion, effectively a second movie begins. This makes the film seem uneven and incomplete. A listen to the audio commentary will show that this is actually the case. Boyle cobbled together the second half of the movie in a short amount of time. The original storyline was more focused on the epidemic which caused the zombification of the population and was absolutely more satisfying thematically speaking. But this isn't a world of what could have been, its a world of what is, and this film is very strong but fractured. Its like looking at a wonderful piece of pottery but there's a huge crack in it. Sure its nice to look at and ultimately functional but its still broke.

As a huge fan of zombie movies, this stands as one of the best. This would be the only zombie film that has ever come close to challenging the original Night of the Living Dead as the best of its kind.


Cautions: As with any zombie movie, this film is drenched in blood and gore. The zombies projectile vomit blood and...well, generally act like zombies, eat people, tear them apart, etc. Those sensitive to fake blood will be best served by avoiding this movie like the plague - pun intended.


Worldview: Zombie movies tend to be Darwinist affairs where it is two species against one another: the human versus the zombie. The weak are decimated while those willing to do what it takes survive. This falls under the classification of "pick off movie" where a group of two dimensional characters are set up to be picked off one by one. It is traditional for filmmakers to attempt to use the zombie masses as a symbol of a social group. Or to use the zombie apocalypse as a delivery system for some grand social message, like the racism overtones in Night of the Living Dead. What's great about the zombie movies, and probably the reason I like them so much, is because they are immune to directorial messages. No matter how you dress it up, regardless of intent, you always just have a stupid story about zombies chasing people down. As someone who sees way too many movies and focuses on their messages and statements, the clean stupidity of a zombie movie is refreshing. Granted, the nihilistic core of the zombie template does impart a dim message to its audience and there's metaphysical issues that can be pondered. But again, most intellectual study is diminished by the fact that the messages are delivered by a raging torrent of gnashing undead.




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The Omega Man (1971)
28 Weeks Later (2007)


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Labels: Cillian Murphy, film, movie review, zombie