Heres something about 28 days from Aint it Cool News
Spoilers about the first reel of the film included
Being a lowly freelance writer in deepest London, Scoops don’t often fall in my lap- but having been to all of Horror festival FRIGHTFEST, I thought I’d let you in on one gorgeously entertaining surprise that popped up. With very little warning, we were given an exclusive look at the first 20 minutes of Danny Boyle’s new apocalypse thriller 28 DAYS LATER, introduced by the Boyle himself and producer Andrew MacDonald. It was shown on the back of the sneak preview of SPIDER (A haunting depiction of schizophrenia and memory, or ninety minutes of Ralph Fiennes mumbling incoherently in a grubby raincoat, depending on what mood you’re in)- and from the looks of it, we’re in for a genuinely exciting experience and the first decent London-set Apocalypse for a very long time. Shot on DV, it’s gritty and energetic stuff with a great sense of reality, and a genuinely haunting DAY OF THE TRIFFIDS edge. Anyhow, here’s the brief lowdown on what was seen….
28 DAYS LATER- THE PREVIEW
After the Fox Searchlight Logo, the film cuts to quick edits of TV footage;- riots, brutality, violence all across the globe. We’re in an Animal Research Laboratory, where a large chimpanzee is tied quietly on a restraining table, watching a row of TV Screens blaring the previously seen violent images, while behind there’s a whole group of other, angrier Chimps in cages. Moments later, a group of Animal Rights Activists break in, aiming to liberate the Chimpanzees- what they don’t realise is that all the animals have been infected with a highly contagious virus that enhances rage to major levels- it’s carried in blood and saliva, and one bite is enough to infect. Despite being warned desperately by a white-coated scientist, they open the cages- and one of the activists is bitten by a Chimp. Moments later she’s vomiting up blood over her colleagues while her eyes go red, and quickly she’s despatching the scientist in a bloodthirsty manner. The chimps in the other cages start screaming in anger…
Everything goes black. A title says “28 Days Later…�
In St. Thomas’ Hospital in Westminster, a man wakes up naked on a hospital bed. (He’s played by Cillian Murphy, an Irish actor who played one of the leads in DISCO PIGS). He’s confused and bewildered- most of all by the fact that the entire hospital seems to be empty. Later, he’s grabbed some surgical clothes and is making his way through the wrecked hospital, checking phones and finding nothing working. After raiding a soft drinks machine, he makes his way outside… only to find that London is completely deserted.
He makes his way across Westminster Bridge, through Whitehall… and all he finds is wreckage, and an occasional double decker bus knocked on it’s side. At Oxford Street, he finds a copy of the Evening Standard newspaper headlined “EVACUATION – Global panic as Britons flee�. In Picadilly Circus, he finds a board full of messages, people trying to find their families. He’s regularly shouting “HELLO?!?� Still, he hasn’t found any people.
Finally, he ends up in a Church in East London… and he finds that it’s full of bodies. Unfortunately, not all of them are dead- the moment that he says something, several sit bolt upright- however, and he’s soon confronted by a Priest spitting blood with red eyes, and a whole group of bestial infected people with violence in mind. He makes a run for it, desperately trying to get away, and is only saved by a group of masked individuals who start pelting the infection victims with Molotov Cocktails (even though this doesn’t completely stop them). Finally, they detonate a bomb in a petrol station to take the rest of the infected group out, and they head off into the Docklands, with the Man asking for someone to tell him exactly what the hell is going on…
That’s where the reel ends. Who knows where it’ll go, but there’s the potential for one hell of a movie there…
