Rather they are ‘infected’ with an unknown virus that started in a laboratory. In fact I would add, and this may be merely a semantic sticking point for some, that the film is not really a zombie film because the humans causing havoc have not died and come back to life. Although the film has its moments, it failed to deliver the dread and horror usually associated with the time honored zombie film that was promised in the trailers (not that the filmmaker has anything to do with the trailer). The trailers I had seen made the film out to be a terrifying zombie film of the 1970’s ilk, only with faster moving zombies replacing the lumbering undead seen in Romero’s films and the countless Italian zombie films of the 1970s (although it must be said that Boyle did not invent the fast moving zombie either, since Umberto Lenzi featured them in his 1980 Nightmare City, aka City of the Walking Dead).
The UK film has hit North American screens with a blizzard of promotional hype.
With the plentiful allusions to George Romero’s classic zombie trilogy ( Night of the Living Dead, 1968, Dawn of the Dead, 1979, and Day of the Dead, 1985) the line is perilously treaded in Danny Boyle’s latest pseudo zombie, science-fiction action thriller 28 Days Later. Sometimes it is a fine line between homage and imitation. 28 Days Later The fine line between homage and imitationīy Donato Totaro Volume 7, Issue 6 / June 2003 9 minutes (2141 words)