Raising The Undead

This coming May sees the UK cinematic release of 28 Weeks Later…, the unimaginatively-titled sequel to director Danny Boyle’s gritty horror 28 Days Later... Boyle’s original has become, in many ways, a seminal entry in the horror genre, although, notably, the ushering of a new chapter for the cinematic undead as a source of serious horror, was not what the film initially drew attention for. The filmmakers apparently sought to draw attention to their relatively low budget by shooting only on semi-professional digital cameras. Then there was the film’s opening spectacle of a deserted London, and the arresting image of Cillian Murphy’s Jim, clad in hospital scrubs and clasping a carrier-bag, standing in bewilderment on an empty Westminster Bridge. As Jim soon discovers, London, and indeed the UK as a whole, has been evacuated in the aftermath of a savage plague – viscerally referred to as ‘Rage’ – which, upon transmission of infected blood, almost instantaneously strips victims of their humanity and turns them into rabid, demon-eyed, blood-vomiting monsters. It was a shocking vision amplified by the digital format, giving the impression that the end of the world was being filmed with footage blended from survivors on the run, and static CCTV cameras.

Just as George Romero critiqued America’s involvement in Vietnam in 1968’s Night of the Living Dead, and then satirized western consumerism a decade later in Dawn of the Dead, 28 Days Later… arguably captured the 21^st Century zeitgeist and became a product of its time. In the aftermath of 9/11, and in the months preceding the invasion of Iraq in 2003, the fear of weapons of mass destruction, chemical warfare and infection, dominated headlines across the western world. The Bush Administration insisted Saddam was stockpiling unpleasant chemicals in the Iraqi desert, and tabloids speculated on the likelihood of a terrorist ‘dirty’ bomb hitting London or New York. The ‘Infected’ of Boyle’s British apocalypse capitalized on the fears fanning from this brave new world. Gone were the cumbersome, slow-moving undead of Romero’s original visions; the Rage created aggressive, salivating victims who were fast on their feet, aimlessly sprinting and snarling in their tireless and instinctive search for flesh to feast upon.

For nearly two decades from the late 1980s, the zombie was effectively confined to the annals of cinematic ridicule, perhaps owing to the torrent of lazy parodies and trashy TV movies that plagued the 1990s (Space Zombie Bingo, anyone?). 28 Days Later… made the zombie scary again, and the film’s massive stateside success was clearly interpreted by the studios. A remake of Dawn of the Dead hit multiplexes in 2004. The film jettisoned the consumerist satire of Romero’s original to concentrate on snarling horror that seemed directly inspired by Boyle’s brutal depiction of the British apocalypse. Despite lacking depth, the film was hugely entertaining and creative in its own way by depicting a zombie birth.

Once again, however, it was the British who broke new ground in the genre. Comedy duo and Romero-worshippers Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright, released the London-set zombie-homage Shaun of the Dead in 2004. A quirky, hilarious and surprisingly violent affair, the film was billed as a “romantic comedy with zombies”, telling the story of a young man attempting to fix his relationship woes with the added inconvenience of the undead roaming the streets of London. Like 28 Days Later… the film was embraced by the Americans, and even played a part in convincing Romero himself to direct a fourth zombie film of his own. Land of the Dead was released in 2005 to mixed reviews. Indeed, it lacked the satirical punch of his previous outings, although it marked a return to the classic lumbering zombie that suddenly proved no less terrifying than the rabidly hyperactive victims of 28 Days Later…

The success of 28 Days Later… has had differing effects on each side of the Atlantic. The British horror genre has seen a rejuvenation, perhaps most notable so far for having supported the career of writer-director Neil Marshall. His werewolf horror-comedy Dog Soldiers, was released in the same year as 28 Days Later… and enjoyed critical and commercial success in Britain, as did his follow-up, caving-horror The Descent. More recent releases, such as camping horror Wilderness, and gory business-retreat satire Severance, remain under-seen but still worthy additions to the genre. In America, the ripple-effect has been far more routine. A film adaptation of the popular video-game Resident Evil was filmed in 2002 by British director Paul WS Anderson. Telling the story of a deadly, zombie-creating virus unleashed within a subterranean research facility, the film received a thoroughly-deserved critical mauling at the international box-office. Still, the film found a fan-base, and the second sequel is due later this year.

In the midst of an influx of tepid additions to the horror genre, many of which young children are allowed admission to even under the UK’s stricter film-classification guidelines, 28 Weeks Later… will be eagerly anticipated by horror fans. The lack of Danny Boyle is a glitch, and the lack of the experimental digital format may affect the distinctive atmospherics of the original. Having said that, it will be fascinating to see whether the return of the Rage will have the same resonance on the movie-going public, as it did back in 2002.