Product Description

Hailed as the most frightening film since The Exorcist, acclaimed Director Danny Boyle's visionary take on zombie horror "isn't just scary…it's absolutely terrifying" (Access Hollywood).

An infirmary patient awakens from a coma to an empty room…in a vacant hospital…in a deserted city. A powerful virus, which locks victims into a permanent state of murderous rage, has transformed the world around him into a seemingly desolate wasteland. Now a handful of survivors must fight to stay alive, unaware that the worst is yet to come…

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3291 in DVD
• Released on: 2003-10-21
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
• Formats: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English, French
• Subtitled in: English, Spanish
• Dubbed in: Spanish
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 113 minutes

Amazon.com
The director/producer team that created Trainspotting turn their dynamic cinematic imaginations to the classic science fiction scenario of the last people on Earth. Jim (Cillian Murphy) wakes up from a coma to find London deserted--until he runs into a mob of crazed plague victims. He gradually finds other still-human survivors (including Naomie Harris), with whom he heads off across the abandoned countryside to find the source of a radio broadcast that promises salvation. 28 Days Later is basically an updated version of The Omega Man and other post-apocalyptic visions; but while the movie may lack originality, it makes up for it in vivid details and creepy paranoid atmosphere. 28 Days Later's portrait of how people behave in extreme circumstances--written by novelist Alex Garland (The Beach)--will haunt you afterward. Also featuring Brendan Gleeson (The General, Gangs of New York) and Christopher Eccleston (Shallow Grave, The Others). --Bret Fetzer

DVD features
Even though it's only a single disc, the 28 Days Later DVD includes a lot of very interesting features, including the alternate ending that was shown after the end of the film a couple months into its theatrical run. It's much bleaker, as director Danny Boyle and writer Alex Garland say in their optional commentary. Another alternate ending is almost the same as the theatrical ending but slightly less happy. Most interesting is the "radical" alternate ending that takes an entirely different path midway through the film. It wasn't filmed, however, so Boyle and Garland narrate the action over storyboards, and it's a surprisingly engrossing 11 minutes. Boyle and Garland also did a commentary track for the film, and they talk about how they were able to get the shots of deserted London and why they used the ending they did. There are also six very watchable deleted scenes, and Boyle and Garland's comments range from "great sequence" to "a disgrace." Slightly less relevant is a 24-minute documentary that spends its first 10 minutes on the real-life threat of infectious diseases before recapping the film and discussing such elements as the use of digital video and the boot camp the actors had to attend. If you need any further proof that the DVD was a labor of love, even the stills galleries have commentaries. --David Horiuchi

From The New Yorker
Another helpful development for the British Tourist Board. Danny Boyle's horror film, alternately savage and glum, shows London-and, by implication, most of England-destroyed by a fast-acting plague. Borne in the blood, it passes from one Brit to another with a single bite; soon, the capital is empty save for marauding zombies, leaving the unchewed-such as Jim (Cillian Murphy) and Selena (Naomie Harris)-to drift around, shop without paying, and never quite have sex. Any resemblance to normal teen-age behavior is entirely coincidental. Brendan Gleeson, much the best and cheeriest thing in the movie, plays a taxi-driver who helps them to leave town; from here on, Boyle and his screenwriter, Alex Garland, run out of gas. The picture is twitchy and annoying, flecked with blood and half-digested ideas, and too much is left unexplained. As a scheme for solving central London's traffic problem, though, it is unlikely to be surpassed. -Anthony Lane
Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker

Customer Reviews

Not just another zombie movie
When I tell people this is my favorite film of all time, so many of them respond "Oh, so you're into zombie movies then?", but that's not it at all.

Similar to I Am Legend/The Omega Man/The Last Man on Earth in its apocalyptic view (they were all inspired by the Richard Matheson book - I Am Legend), 28 Days Later is Britain's take on the world-gone-rabid idea, under the helm of English director Danny Boyle (Trainspotting, Sunshine), written by novelist/screenwriter Alex Garland (The Beach, Sunshine) and starring Cillian Murphy (Batman Begins, The Wind That Shakes the Barley).

While 28 Days Later is an excellent horror film which will no-doubt please your average horror-film fan; for all you well-versed film buffs who are looking for something with a little more edge than your average slice'n'dice - a film that's well presented, well thought-out, and will leave you thinking about it well after leaving the cinema: this film is for you.

It's much more than your average gratuitous gore-fest slasher flick. The cinematography is amazing for one - it's like art porn, with hundreds of shots so beautifully composed. The soundtrack is eerie and fabulous - a score which I could listen to for days on end. And as for the plot, it's a much more realistic depiction of how an apocalypse might come about (and how survivors would react to it) than many horror flicks around.

Simply put, it's certainly one of the best modern horrors I've seen and a must-have for any DVD collection.

Flawed but Fun Zombie Action
This movie surprised me by actually being halfway decent. It didn't overdo the zombie motif, as zombie movies tend to do. And it had some pretty interesting insights into human nature. At the end of the movie you're left with the conviction that the real monsters were the uninfected people, not the infected ones. I did have one major objection, though. Everything was too pristine. They did a good job of making the hospital look ransacked and doing the same for a few other locations that needed to be creepy so things could jump out at the main character, but at other times they show streets, stretches of highway, and whole city blocks where there are no crashed cars and no dead bodies. There's also still gasoline to be had, and when they go into the supermarket it's fully-stocked. All that just doesn't seem likely. All the same, though, a good movie.

One of the better horror/cult films in past decade.
Very skeptical to see this film in theatres few years back. The storyline and film editing is excellent. Originally bought this film on vhs. Watched it so much, had to buy dvd format. Truly great horror film. Not to bloody or gruesome.
Tells of what could happen if any government wants to use us as a guinea pig in their wicked experiment. I bet most people watch this as entertainment but there is that underlying message: what if. LOVED IT! Still do!!!