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28 DAYS LATER:  A very, very interesting take on the zombie-apocalypse scenario.  There are actually not that many zombies here - and they're not the "living dead", either, they're "infected" with a virus called Rage, and they don't want to eat people as much as they want to kill them or spread the virus, and once you kill them, they stay dead - there's more emptiness.  As Selena says, they will never read a book that hasn't already been written, they will never see a movie that hasn't already been shot.  Their families are dead, and if they're lucky, they died peacefully and not as a mutated Infected, shot in the head like a dog.  Shot entirely on digital video, the movie is full of shadows, muted colors, and is not crisp but is "ultra-real". 

While this is usually referred to as a zombie movie, I find that it's more of a post-apocalypse movie.  More important than the zombies and the gore and violence (which is not in excess here), are the reactions of the survivors in evacuated and decimated Britain, quarantined by the rest of the world.  There is no paranormality here either - Rage is a lab-created disease produced by exposing lab monkeys to endless videos of violence captured on the news, and it is set free when well-meaning animal activists decide to free one of the monkeys, which immediately attacks them.  Which means, in effect, we create our own doom, and the real difference between the Infected and a furious non-Infected (like Jim) is some hold on what we call "humanity" - a sense of humor, a sense of restraint, the ability to love, the ability to do anything that is not for your own gain but someone else's, motor skills, recognition, memory.  While language is, to some extent, also a facet of humanity, a little Infected boy that attacks Jim says, "I hate you."  I wasn't sure if I heard it when I watched it, but it's confirmed by IMDb.  Which is to say, this disease is basically rage and hatred without anything else. 

Equally or maybe more alarming than the Infected themselves are the reactions of the survivors.  Jim is compassionate, reluctant to kill or leave anyone behind.  Selena believes survival is "as good as it gets".  Frank and Hannah always try to make believe that it's not really that bad (probably because Hannah's a child) and they live for each other, having a dynamic very similar to the Man and the Boy in Cormac McCarthy's The Road (interestingly, they have parallel fates as well).  The soldiers are a strange mix of excited to be in a warzone where they get to exercise their shooting and bashing skills and experience dangerous adrenaline highs, and depressed because "there is no future".  Despite issuing a broadcast all over England inviting survivors to come to Manchester, they only protect those who can serve a purpose to them - the men they find are executed, and the women are kept to breed the next generation.  Selena bashes in her teammate when he becomes Infected without hesitation, while Jim ends up killing two soldiers - one who tried to kill him, and one who tried to rape Selena - in cold blood.  Interestingly, Jim also sets the soldiers' "pet" Infected loose, allowing him to wreak havoc on the base and spread the disease further.  And by that time, I have to admit, I was rooting for the Infected Mailer over the soldiers. 

Basically, there's not that much difference between the Infected and the non-Infected.  The enemy is us.  As U2 says, "and you become a monster so the monster will not break you." - Highly Recommended (but I was waffling between this and Recommended).

 

"Think, just think.  What would you do with a diseased little island?"


"Have you got any plans, Jim?  Do you want us to find a cure and save the world or just fall in love and fuck?"


"If you look at the whole life of the planet, we... you know, man... has only been around for a few blinks of an eye.
So if the infection wipes us all out, that is a return to normality."


"All the death, all the shit.  It doesn't really mean anything to Frank and Hannah because...
well, she's got a Dad and he's got his daughter."


"I promised them women."


"Are you trying to kill me?"  "No, sweetheart.  I'm making you not care."


"That was longer than a heartbeat."

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