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Director Danny Boyle (of Trainspotting, Slumdog Millionaire, and Sunshine) demonstrates his Michael Crichton-like ability to take on just about any subject and make it believable and engaging with this 2002 horror movie that was notable for two main reasons: (1) it was the first movie to introduce fast-moving zombies who hunt in coordinated packs and (2) there isn’t a single zombie in it. Actually, that second part is the media’s fault. A zombie is a reanimated corpse. The “creatures” in 28 Days Later are living beings that have been transformed by a virus into bloodthirsty blind-rage machines that can run back-to-back Boston marathons without stopping for Gatorade.
The movie is shot in England and it stars Cillian Murphy as one of a small group of would-be survivors of a massive outbreak of the virus. The violence is fast and hard; the energy is intense; and the decisions some of these folks have to make to save themselves are occasionally unthinkable. 28 Days Later should not be confused with 28 Days starring Sandra Bullock as a big-city newspaper columnist who is forced to enter a drug and alcohol rehab center after ruining her sister's wedding and crashing a stolen limousine. That movie sucked.